THE government said yesterday it will expand its propoor programs to cushion the impact of soaring oil prices.
“We recognize the dangers caused by the high price of crude in the world market to a society whose economy is heavily dependent on oil,” President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo told a roundtable discussion at Fort Bonifacio in Taguig.
She ordered the release of P700 million to finance the sale of medicine at cheaper prices to the poor through 5,000 drugstores nationwide.
In Malacañang, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the Cabinet was “on top of the situation.”
“We already have strong safety nets in place to lessen the impact of rising oil prices on the cost of basic commodities,” he said.
“We have gone through this same problem in the past.”
Earlier, the President ordered the energy department to step up its development of alternative fuel sources including ethanol and coco-biodiesel.
Three Senate committees have endorsed measures mandating the use of biofuels.
Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, chairman of the energy committee, filed a report recommending approval of Senate Bill 2226, which consolidates 10 measures on biofuels, before the Senate adjourned for the Lenten break. The committees on agriculture and finance supported it.
SB 2226 makes it mandatory for oil companies to mix a minimum 5 percent ethanol into gasoline within two years of the law’s passage.
The bill also seeks to create a Philippine Biofuel Board to determine the feasibility of a 2 percent biodiesel blend. Joyce Pangco Pañares, Roy Pelovello, with AFP
Govt to battle rising oil prices
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