DOE seeks more power to penalize oil firms

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Energy (DOE) reiterated yesterday that it needs more power to penalize oil companies found violating trade laws.

Energy Undersecretary Jay Layug said they are still awaiting Congress’ response on its recommendation for more power to police oil players in the country.

We have submitted to the Senate a proposal to make the DOE more dynamic specially in monitoring prices and if ever there is a deviation, we can impose administrative fines,” Layug said.

Republic Act 8479 or the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998 prohibits any intervention specifically on pricing of oil products as the law allows free market competition.

This leaves the DOE limited function of monitoring price movements.

Due to the continued rise in domestic oil prices, the DOE sees the need for lawmakers to review the existing law to expand the powers of the DOE.

Earlier, the DOE was able to work out a way to require oil companies to also submit importation, inventory and other reportorial requirements aside from the usual one-hour before notice of price adjustments.

According to the DOE official, it is pertinent to review the oil deregulation law to provide the DOE more administrative powers in monitoring and sanctioning erring oil firms.

Under the current set-up, Layug said, “we have to go to courts and it takes a while to be able to get a ruling from any court.”

Earlier, there were efforts from both Malacañang and concerned government agencies to address the unabated rise in oil prices. Among these efforts was the creation of joint task force composed of the energy, transportation and justice departments.

The newly-formed group would be tasked to look closely the pump price movements and review the oil deregulation law to ensure that the public is not being short-changed by oil companies.