House mulling amendments to Oil Deregulation Law

MANILA, Philippines - The House committee on energy is studying possible amendments to the 1998 Oil Deregulation Law that would allow the government to “manage” pump prices in times of calamity.

Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo, who was at the special meeting of the Legislative–Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) at Malacañang yesterday, said members of the council discussed the effects of typhoons “Pepeng” and “Ondoy” on local oil prices.

“I stated that during times of crisis, though we are in a deregulated industry, perhaps there would be a need to create mechanisms to prevent distributors, oil companies from exploiting the situation because they might take advantage of it by bringing up the prices of fuel and other petroleum products,” Arroyo said.

He refused to use the word “control” which was used by Remonde in a briefing on the results of the LEDAC meeting. Arroyo said “manage” is more appropriate.

Arroyo said he already broached the idea to Trade Secretary Peter Favila, and they will schedule a meeting with industry players.

“This is one option but it would take time (to resolve this). But we are studying this. There are many gray areas in the law,” he said.