MANILA, Philippines?Consumer and Oil Price Watch plans to ask Congress for legislation that would return the country to a regulated oil industry to ensure lower prices of petroleum products.

COPW chair Raul T. Concepcion in a statement Monday said, ?The Department of Energy has consistently said that since the industry is deregulated, they are free to increase their prices even if Shell and Petron, as refiners, can use Mean of Platts Singapore pricing and not Dubai (which is usually cheaper) under a free market scheme and say that competition will determine pricing.?

?Oil refiners refuse to buy forward and incurred under-recoveries amounting to P6 billion because the government persuaded them to limit their increases to 50 centavos per week to soften the impact on consumers and the riding public,? he added.

For his part, Energy Secretary Angelo T. Reyes told reporters Monday he was amenable to a review of the Oil Deregulation Law ?in order to make everyone understand the difference between a regulated and a deregulated environment.?