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Aubrey Rose Inosante - The Philippine Star
March 18, 2026 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) has begun procuring two million barrels of oil from the global market to shore up the country’s fuel reserves, Finance Secretary Frederick Go said yesterday.
Go told reporters the additional supply is equivalent to 10 days of buffer stock. “The PNOC-EC has already started the procurement process and we should be able to procure about two million barrels of oil anytime now to dispel fears that we will have an oil shortage,” he told the InvestPH conference in Taguig City.
This was also double the one million barrels initially planned. The finance chief said supply will arrive in batches and could come “anytime this week.” He said a more prudent approach is to source from multiple suppliers.
The Philippines, which mostly procures its supply from South Korea, Japan, Singapore and China, has approached Russia to negotiate a possible supply contract. The United States recently suspended its sanctions on Russian oil exports.
Energy Secretary Sharon Garin earlier said the Philippines currently has sufficient fuel inventory until April.
Last Sunday, Go and Garin met with 16 oil companies to explore emergency measures aimed at acquiring oil at lower prices and broadening the country’s sourcing network.
Asked whether the move would help ease prices or focus more on supply, Go said it would likely achieve both.
”The primary objective, of course, is to create that buffer stock, additional buffer stock. And also when you put out a big order into the global market, the beneficiary should be able to get some economies of scale and procure at lower prices,” he said.
Go added that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas may need to tighten monetary policy in its next meeting if oil prices continue to rise due to the US-Israel war on Iran.
“If oil prices remain high, if oil prices remain elevated and the situation persists for some time, the Monetary Board most likely will have to entertain a tightening,” he told reporters.
Up to Congress
Malacañang, for its part, is leaving it up to Congress to decide on proposals to repeal the Oil Deregulation Law, as some sectors are calling for the scrapping of the measure to lessen the impact of price shocks triggered by the Middle East conflict.
As consumers grapple with rising fuel prices, some lawmakers are pushing for a review or repeal of the 1998 law, which was meant to liberalize the downstream oil industry to ensure a competitive market and enough supply of petroleum products.
Members of the Makabayan bloc have claimed that the Middle East crisis is being exploited and argued that instead of creating competition, deregulation only allowed “coordinated” price hikes.
“It is now up to Congress,” Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said at a press briefing yesterday in Cebu.
“Whatever their view is, if that is what they think is good for the country and if they can show it and exert influence through the crafting of a law, anything that will be good for the country will not be opposed by the President,” she added.
Yesterday, Senate President Vicente Sotto III filed a bill seeking the total repeal of the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998.
Senate Bill 1984 aims to dismantle Republic Act 8479, which currently allows local oil companies to independently implement weekly price adjustments for gasoline, diesel and kerosene.
In his explanatory note, Sotto cited the direct impact of global geopolitical tensions on domestic pump prices to justify the reversal of the decades-old policy. “It is high time to give back to the state the authority to manage fuel prices,” Sotto stated.
“Now that our petroleum prices are directly impacted by the geopolitical tension in the Middle East, transparency, scrutiny and uniformity in pricing are needed more than ever,” he added. — Alexis Romero, Rhodina Villanueva
