Finance officials are mulling some measures for the government to continue the implementation of the fuel marking program despite the community quarantine in Metro Manila from March 15-April 14, 2020.

In a Viber message to journalists Sunday, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said transport of fuel is exempted from the quarantine, thus, “we would like to continue fuel marking.”

“The proposal of BOC (Bureau of Customs) is to issue an exemption on the movement of the marker handlers and to request Coast Guard assistance in the transport,” he said.

“We can also continue marking with a team already on the ground in various areas,” he added.

The fuel marking program is targeted to address fuel smuggling in the country.

BOC data show that as of February 14, 2020, the BOC fuel marking team has marked 2.368 billion liters while the team from the Bureau of Internal Revenue has marked 913 million liters, bringing the total to 3.28 billion liters.

Oil companies that have participated in the program are Unioil, Chevron, Phoenix Petroleum, Seaoil, Shell, Insular Oil, Filoil Energy, PTT Philippines, Petron, Warbucks Petroleum, Microdragon Petroleum (Subic), High Glory Subic Int’l (Subic), Goldenshare Commercial (Subic), Marubeni Phils (Subic), Jadelink (Subic), and Era 1 Petroleum (Subic). (PNA)