Lawmaker, 8 others charged with oil cartelization

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has approved the criminal indictment of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers Association Inc. (LPGMA) party-list Rep. Arnel Ty and other officers of his group for cartelization charges.

In a 10-page resolution released yesterday, the DOJ found probable cause to charge the lawmaker and eight other LPGMA officers for violation of Republic Act 8479 (the Oil Deregulation Law) and Revised Penal Code.

Also ordered charged in court were Rene Rossel, Danilo Chua, Alison Sy, Ronnie Sevillana, Mar Dave Tang, Bonifacio Eleria, Virginia Dave Cid and Antonio del Rosario.

The complaint was filed by the Federation of Philippine Industries Inc. (FPII) in October last year.

“In the instant case, the respondents clearly agreed to fix the price of their LPG products. This is evidenced by the fact that the LPGMA members have unanimously consented to the declarations made by respondents Ty, as their president, announcing the price rollback of their products.

“The announcement was unarguably made by LPGMA as an association, evincing a mutual conformity and concurrence on such action by its members,” the DOJ resolution read.

The DOJ said the agreement to fix prices of LPG by respondents, which he branded as “price signaling,” was an effective “restraint on trade and free competition.”

The complainant alleged that LPGMA has declared that it controls 30 percent of the LPG in Luzon.

Ty said LPGMA will file a petition for review before the DOJ and if that fails, the group will go to court.

He said the LPG sellers were just announcing their price rollbacks and they were already charged with cartelization.

“It’s said that they did not see merit in our defense,” Ty said, adding that “the DOJ should act as fast as it did in deciding on the case we filed for overpricing against the oil companies.”