Mark Ong

Getting there….

@imchristan politicianS

The Philippines has a crisis in morality. Maraming mga pinoy ay nagsasabing susuporta pa rin sila sa kanilang Politiko kahit na alam nilang corrupt at magnanakaw yung sinusuportahan nila.

@TransportGuy Always been a challenge to educate a certain segment of the public (regardless of educational background or age/life experience)….apart from perhaps sari-sari stores, karinedia & a select few, some are hardwired in their belief that ALL businesses are killing it.

I used to picture gas station owners the way you probably do. Leaning back somewhere, getting fanned by an oversized banana leaf while being hand-fed grapes, watching the numbers tick up on the pump, quietly celebrating every global crisis. Comfortable. Insulated. Maybe even grateful for the chaos. Then I met Carlo at MIAS 2026. He owns a station in Davao. He came up for something totally different. We weren’t even talking about fuel prices; just two people in a conversation about the cars on display that wandered somewhere honest. And what he said stopped me cold. “The hardest part about the fuel crisis is that people think we benefit from this. We don’t. Our margin is fixed in pesos, not percentages. When prices go up, we actually get squeezed harder.” I didn’t believe him at first. So I did the math. And yes, not only do they suffer the same way we all do, they get the blame for it too. It’s like being slapped on both sides of the face. And here’s what I learned after digging in a little deeper. Gas stations don’t earn a cut of the pump price. They earn a flat peso amount per liter, roughly two to three pesos, whether fuel costs sixty or a hundred and twenty. At ₱60 a liter, that’s a 5% margin. At today’s prices, it’s barely 3%. Now before you say it, I know what you’re thinking. “But they bought that fuel cheaper. They’re selling old stock at the new price.” It’s the most common objection, and it sounds airtight. Except that’s not how it works. At least not for the gas stations. Philippine dealers price on replacement cost, meaning what the next tanker will cost them, not what the last one did. That’s the industry standard, enforced by the oil companies themselves through wholesale pricing. Whatever brief inventory gain exists on the old stock flows upstream, absorbed into the new wholesale price Carlo has to pay for the next delivery. He doesn’t pocket the spread. He never controls it. And that next delivery has to be paid upfront. In full. At the new higher price. Before a single liter crosses the pump. While that number stays flat, everything else climbs. Electricity, salaries, rent, all moving in one direction. Volume drops because every spike pushes drivers to carpool, downgrade, or simply stay home. Carlo is personally financing the price hike with his own capital, on a margin that was already thin before any of this started. Then the monitoring teams arrive. Show-cause orders get issued for “premature” adjustments. The public points at the guy behind the counter. But the real money is elsewhere. And the biggest beneficiary isn’t even an oil company. It’s VAT. Twelve percent, applied to the full pump price, every single time. Which means every time global oil prices rise and you feel it at the pump, the government’s take goes up automatically. No tanker to finance. No staff to pay. No customer to lose. Just a larger collection on the same transaction, baked into the price before Carlo even opens his doors. Most stations only survive because of the convenience store. The car wash. The coffee. The fuel itself is almost a loss leader designed to get your car to stop. Carlo wasn’t asking for sympathy. He was just telling the truth. And once you hear it, you can’t unhear it. Because if Carlo isn’t the villain, who is? The oil companies may have some responsibility, but they also carry real exposure. Inventory risk, logistics, infrastructure. Carlo carries all of that too, but on a margin that hasn’t budged in years, on capital he committed long before any of this started. The one entity that benefits from every single price hike, absorbs zero of the pain, and never once appears in the headline? That’s the one worth talking about. Carlo went back to Davao. The pumps are still running. And somewhere in a government office, nobody is losing any sleep over any of this.

@DeusXMachina14 @bilyonaryo_ph If he had just given up his salary, could have won over the public.

@bilyonaryo_ph reported the attendance record of the senators. Bato as expected is king of the absentees.

@inquirerdotnet Please share with public where in Catarman? Any chance it’s at the airport again?

MAGBITBIT NG PAYONG! ☂️ Catarman, Northern Samar registered a peak heat index of 44ºC on Wednesday, the highest of three areas that logged “danger” level indices, the state weather bureau said. READ MORE: inqnews.net/HighestHeatInd…

@inquirerdotnet Sangley Point…at the airport? The airport that is undergoing major improvements? How about a temperature reading outside Cavite municipal hall, or at any public market, for a change?

KAYA NIYO PA BA ANG INET? 😓 The peak heat index on Tuesday, April 7 was recorded in Sangley Point, Cavite City which reached then danger level at 43ºC, according to the state weather bureau. READ MORE: inqnews.net/HighestHeatInd…

@bncdotph Most public personalities calling for wealth tax on the rich, actually mean wealth tax on those “richer than me”

LUKE ESPIRITU: TAX THE BILYONARYOS Labor leader Atty. Luke Espiritu backs calls to tax the country's richest. Espiritu stressed that the Marcos administration should not just remove value added tax (VAT) and excise tax, but it must also impose tax on the bilyonaryos. More on this in the full episode of #AtTheForefront.

@inquirerdotnet Mad respect for this guy, four years ago.

Tax cuts to affect economy – Lacson s.inqnews.net/wK2cy8q

@News5PH The Church, the community, used to be the safety net…

'WE CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT' Kinuwestiyon ni Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David ang aniya'y kakulangan ng hakbang ng gobyerno para maibsan ang paghihirap ng mga apektado ng oil crisis. Sa programang "Storycon" ng One News, sinabi ni David na naniniwala siyang may kaya pang gawin ang gobyerno na higit pa sa pamamahagi lang ng ayuda.

@IBONFoundation Many people are familiar the “1%” argument, but it’s interesting and odd that you’ve now expanded it to 10% Please share with the public the net worth threshhold, to qualify as part of top 10%

The top 10% of Filipinos held approximately Php40 trillion in wealth as of 2022, nearly three times the Php15 trillion net worth of the bottom 90% combined... Read more--- ibon.org/ibon_resource/… #Kalbaryo #PoorsCalvary #PeopleEconomics

@jcpunongbayan Price cap do lead to shortages. But how about cash assistance to poor which provides a positive impact to consumer demand, wouldn’t that make inflation worse?

Hello, anyone interested in supporting our onion farmers in Nueva Ecija? Php 200 per sack (around 7-8 kg) + Php 100 share sa lalamove to Manila Pick-up will be in Malabon City.

@SenWarren To be fair, if there is one place on earth where this might just work, without terrible downside, that would be the USA. The US capital markets are the largest and the most liquid. Founders selling shares to pay the tax will not significantly affect the stock indices.

Today, I'm introducing my wealth tax — and more than 50 members of Congress are joining me. It’s time for the government to start working for American families, not just the ultra-rich.

@kikopangilinan Ignore the politicking over Sara DUTs, and there’s enough politicos grandstanding over the oil crisis. Just remain laser-focused on helping farmers and fisher folks, Sen. Kiko. Thank you!

SAGIP SAKA: TULAY SA MATATAG NA KABUHAYAN NG MAGSASAKA AT MANGINGISDA 🌾🐟 Mula sa ₱300,000 na benta noong 2019, umabot sa mahigit ₱13 milyon ang pinakamataas na naitalang benta sa isang taon ng Sto. Tomas San Luis Farmers Assoc., Inc.—isang patunay ng tagumpay ng direktang ugnayan sa pagitan ng pamahalaan at mga lokal na magsasaka. Sa pamamagitan ng Sagip Saka Act at pakikipagtulungan sa BJMP NCR at BJMP Region III, direktang binili ang kanilang mga produkto, mula gulay hanggang itlog na nagbibigay ng mas mataas na kita sa mga local farmers at nagtitiyak na sariwa, abot-kaya, at de-kalidad ang pagkain para sa mga institusyon ng pamahalaan. Para sa mga bayaning nagpapakain sa atin, ito ay higit pa sa kita. Nagkakaroon sila ng seguridad sa hanapbuhay, at mas matatag na merkado. Kaya patuloy nating isinusulong ang Sagip Saka Act upang mas marami pang magsasaka at mangingisda ang makinabang at masigurong sapat, abot-kaya, at matatag ang pagkain para sa buong bansa.🇵🇭

@newswatchplusph Petron 2024 audited numbers - ₱.01 net income for every ₱1 sale (1% profit margin) 2025 - ₱.02 net income for every ₱1 sale (2% profit margin) MAYNILAD - 2025 net profit margin……41%

TAXING OIL PROFITEERS WATCH: Senator Win Gatchalian suggests a windfall tax on oil companies proven to have engaged in profiteering amid the Middle East crisis. “Ang kutob ko, imposibleng walang labis ang kita dito,” Gatchalian said. He rejected oil companies’ explanation on replacement cost to maintain cash flow for future supplies, saying this does not fully justify the price hike | @eimorpsantos

@PhilippineStar Petron 2024 audited numbers - ₱.01 net income for every ₱1 sale (1% profit margin) 2025 - ₱.02 net income for every ₱1 sale (2% profit margin) Running a big enterprise is not child’s play…so NO to PH gov’t takeover

RAMON ANG READY TO SELL PETRON BACK TO GOV’T Billionaire Ramon Ang has renewed his offer to sell Petron — the country’s only refiner — back to the government as the country battles an energy emergency. “This is not about who owns Petron. This is about what is best for the country,” Ang said. | @brixlelis

@News5PH To be fair, the question puts her in a tough spot. She probably defaulted to saying no, to not cause panic. I think this crisis is among those very rare situations where media practitioners ought to be more cautious.

MAUUWI SA ENERGY LOCKDOWN? Hindi raw nakikita ng Palasyo na magpapatupad ng energy lockdown ang bansa sa gitna ng limitadong suplay ng mga produktong petrolyo. "Sa pagtutulungan po ng lahat ng mga ahensya ng gobyerno... Naghahanap po tayo talaga ng sources para po 'yung supply ng petrolyo, hindi mahinto at magtuloy-tuloy po," saad ni Palace Press Officer Usec. Claire Castro.

@jcpunongbayan Far superior alternative to cash assistance (aka political patronage)…scrap excise tax, but require private vehicles to pay a steep special license fee, otherwise banned from the road, with exceptions (e.g. food delivery fleet, school bus services).

@maeannelosbanos @News5PH @onenewsph Would anyone dare to file a complaint, or file a TRO, if they suspend the excise tax today?

The DOF confirms that the earliest that PBBM can release an EO to reduce/suspend excise tax on oil will be on April 12 or 13.This because there should still be 15 days of publication after PBBM signed the law on emergency power last night and the DBCC has yet to meet @onenewsph

@inquirerdotnet Before people start screaming, their net profit margin is less than 1%

Shell Pilipinas ends 2025 with P2.1-B profit s.inqnews.net/5O8pbNl

@IBONFoundation Outside of the richest 3,000 families, who else in PH have the idle cash to buy the ₱500 billion in assets (shares, landholdings), to pay for the wealth tax?

The declaration of a national emergency will need large funding to be meaningful. A billionaire wealth tax generating at least Php500 billion will help ensure more Filipinos will be given help for as long as they need. #TaxTheRich #PeopleEconomics