Palace defends energy secretary

MANILA, Philippines –  Malacañang yesterday defended Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras from allegations that he was justifying the price increases of oil companies.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said calls for Almendras to resign were baseless since the Energy chief was only trying to explain that the rising prices in oil was a global phenomenon triggered by the political unrest in some parts of the Middle East and North Africa.

“Secretary Almendras (is) doing the best that he can especially to explain what is really happening so the stakeholders and the people will understand the situation and the measures being taken to address (it),” Valte said.

Valte also said that though oil rationing was mentioned as one of the options should there be a disruption in the supply of petroleum products, this was not being seen as an immediate action.

She said the focus was on increasing the inventory levels of oil companies to ensure stable supply.

Valte said President Aquino has issued Administrative Order No. 6 that created the Inter-Agency Energy Contingency Committee to draw up preemptive measures to address the current oil situation.

She said Almendras had made assurances that oil supply in the country would be sufficient in the coming months because the countries from where the Philippines is importing oil were not affected by the political crisis in Libya and other governments in the Middle East and Africa.

“We only import a small percentage from Libya,” Valte said.

“Secretary Almendras said we were also exploring other countries where we could import oil such as Russia and Brunei,” she said.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario earlier said President Aquino would likely discuss the oil situation in his upcoming visits to Indonesia and Singapore and how ASEAN neighbors could cooperate to address the situation.