Quezon City.-- The continued rise in fuel prices is placing an unbearable burden on the Filipino people, driving up the cost of transportation, food, electricity, and other basic goods. Left unchecked, these increases will deepen inequality and further erode the already fragile purchasing power of low- and middle-income households.Government cannot afford to rely solely on market forces in a time of crisis. 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗿𝘆—but it must be 𝙙𝙚���

The proposal of the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Congress to temporarily suspend the excise tax on petroleum products in response to rising oil prices will have only limited impact and does not address the root causes of the country’s oil price crisis, according to Prof. Roland Simbulan, Chairperson and Fellow of the think tank Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG). Simbulan explained that while the proposed suspension is being presented as an imm