Energy chief welcomes Congress fuel price probe

The Department of Energy (DoE) said it was open to any investigation that may be initiated by Congress, as it stressed that it has been transparent and vigilant in monitoring the increases in local oil prices.

“We have explained and presented to various groups and legislators how we monitor and compute fuel prices, and we will continue to be transparent and are very much willing to be called by Congress and be investigated,” Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras said in a statement issued Tuesday.

Almendras, who is currently in Brunei for the Asean Energy Ministers Annual Meeting, noted that the DoE has always been open with its pricing computation especially with transport groups, through weekly meetings with Energy Undersecretary Jose M. Layug Jr.

Almendras, however, cautioned the public that “pricing is not everything and that lower prices do not necessarily mean consumer welfare.”

The energy chief pointed out that the DoE is also taking into consideration the ethical and legal standards with which the petrol and petroleum products were acquired and marketed.

“We need to ensure that the petrol and petroleum products sold in the market adhere to quality standards that the government has set. We cannot scrimp on a few hundred pesos and risk danger to our lives,” Almendras explained.

Since the downstream oil industry has been deregulated, the government can no longer intervene in the pricing of fuel products as it should be a result of supply-demand market play. The Oil Deregulation Act thus rendered the government helpless in lowering fuel prices, which are now largely dictated by movements in the global market and foreign exchange rates, unless a national emergency has been declared.

Still, this has not prevented the DoE from crafting programs and measures that will help the public cope with spiraling fuel prices.

The DoE said it has put in place price-mitigation plans since December 2010 to counter oil price hikes. It earlier appealed to oil companies and the public transport sector was granted P1-P1.50 per-liter discount.

Since January 2011, the DoE also initiated weekly meetings to appraise the transport sector of oil price movements in the international market and their corresponding impact in local pump prices. The agency also clarified that the issues besetting the transport sector are multitude and that diesel pricing is only one of these.

Meanwhile, sustainability plans were also being put in place for the transport sector: the Alternative Fuels Roadmap and its implementing program, Fueling Sustainable Transport Program.