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IGNORING
small oil companies’ warnings of a looming fuel shortage
in Metro Manila, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) said it may
sell Friday petroleum products stored at Oillink
International Corp.’s depot in Mariveles, Bataan.
But late
Thursday, Oillink's retail arm said it had obtained a
temporary restraining order against Customs for three
days, during which hearings on the matter had been set
at the Court of Tax Appeals.
In an
interview before the TRO was obtained, Customs
Commissioner Napoleon L. Morales said he is in no mood
to compromise with Oillink since the company was caught
smuggling.
Morales
said he has asked SGS Group, an international inspection
and certification company, and other Customs surveyors
to determine the amount of oil products that the
government can sell.
“I told
them ‘sorry, you will have to pay.’ Oil players cannot
use on me the premise that there will be an oil shortage
because I will have no legal basis for lifting the
lockup [of Oillink’s depot],” he said, adding that the
country’s big three oil companies can fill up the
possible supply reduction. “I was telling Mr. Paul Co [Oillink
chairman] to pay now the P353.5 million [they] owe the
government, and I will immediately allow the operations
to resume.”
A demand
letter was sent to the company on June 5, and another on
July 2, but Oillink still refused to pay, the bureau
said.
Oillink’s depot supplies an estimated 12 percent of the
Philippines’ total fuel requirements, mainly serving the
needs of more than 500 gasoline stations of smaller oil
companies.
Meanwhile, various companies are also renting Oillink’s
storage facilities, which were also included in the
lockup. These include Cebu Pacific Air, which stores jet
fuel at Oillink’s depot; Ginebra San Miguel for alcohol;
Yokohama for diesel; Total Petroleum, Eastern Petroleum,
Flying V, Seaoil, and Unioil for fuel oil; and Kajima
for the asphalt needs of the Subic-Clark highway
project.
The
small oil players on Thursday said the auction would
truly imperil fuel supply in Metro Manila and nearby
provinces.
“If the
issues are not resolved in the next few days, our fuel
supplies stored in our city depots are already
depleting, and are just good for 10 to 15 days,” said
Fernando L. Martinez, chairman of the Independent
Philippine Petroleum Companies Association (Ippca).
Oillink,
with a monthly capacity of one million barrels of oil,
only stores about 300,000 barrels of fuel a month, which
supplies 12 percent of the country’s total fuel
requirements in more than 500 refilling stations all
over the country.
Although
Ippca members may contract the lost supply from other
sources, Martinez said this will take some time—at least
a month, said sources—and entail additional costs that
could lead to an increase in fuel prices.
“We are
against oil smuggling, and have in fact called the
attention of the DOE to the very uncompetitive oil price
being offered by some oil companies, and yet we are the
ones now being subjected to such accusations and
predicaments. Why are they doing this to us? Is it
because we’re only small companies?” Martinez asked.
The
depot lockup on July 26 was part of a Customs program to
track the previous oil shipments of various petroleum
companies for possible misdeclaration.
Earlier,
the bureau, tasked to collect P228 billion in taxes for
the year, said that Oillink only declared the entry for
26,964 metric tons (MT) out of the actual 32,492 MT it
imported. According to Customs, this deficiency is
estimated to reach P132.21 million in foregone duties
and taxes. An additional payment of P221.28 million is
being sought by the bureau to cover penalties,
equivalent to eight times the revenue lost. |
