Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Tuesday filed a measure seeking to repeal the country’s long-standing oil deregulation policy and restore government oversight of fuel prices.
Sotto’s proposed Senate Bill No. 1984 aims to abolish Republic Act No. 8479, or the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act, which since 1998 has allowed oil companies to freely set pump prices—a system he has consistently opposed.
“Since 1998, I did not vote for the passing of the Oil Deregulation Law and in 2022, I pushed for the review of this particular law,” Sotto said in his explanatory note.
Before deregulation, fuel prices were set by authorities based on international oil costs and exchange rates, with a stabilization fund designed to cushion sudden price surges.
Sotto argued that restoring state control would enable closer monitoring and more predictable pricing, especially as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East continue to push fuel costs higher.
“It is high time to give back to the state the authority to manage fuel prices,” he said.
“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.