MANILA, Philippines -- Militant groups on Tuesday said the energy summit organized by the government was a failure because it lacked credibility, urgency and boldness to address the pressing concern of escalating oil prices.

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance, Bayan) and its allied organizations held a protest rally at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City on the last day of the three-day summit Tuesday.

?The public gained nothing from this extravagant show by the Department of Energy. Instead, the people will be burdened with more foreign debts that will be used to facilitate the increased foreign plunder of our energy resources,? said Arnold Padilla, a spokesperson for Bayan.

The Freedom from Debt Coalition said that ?without changing the paradigm and current policies of the government, the summit?s resolutions would end up as mere palliatives to a chronic crisis.?

Stakeholders

The summit convened various stakeholders of the energy industry to obtain their inputs on how to mitigate the impact of high oil prices.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes on Tuesday said the recommendations from the summit?s various workshops will be evaluated and transformed into action plans.

Reyes said there will also be a mechanism to monitor how the action plans are being implemented.

Bayan and FDC criticized some of the summit recommendations like the development of renewable energy sources and the implementation of the new Biofuels Law and how these are tied up with the promotion of foreign investment.

The FDC said that while the country should pursue the development of alternative, renewable and indigenous energy sources, ?experience with past energy programs show that it should not be pursued within the narrow framework of foreign investment promotion.?

It claimed that international financial institutions were behind the crafting and financing of the policy reforms in the oil and power industry. It noted that ADB loans in the country?s energy sector for the past 30 years was already about $2.8 billion.

Oil deregulation

?Clearly, what manifested during the week-long summit is the solid defense put up by the government, international financial institutions such as the ADB and International Monetary Fund-World Bank, and the oil and utility giants in blocking proposals to overhaul the fundamentals -- the deregulation and privatization policies which made the costs of oil and power one of the highest in the world,? the FDC said.

Bayan and FDC are pushing for the lifting of the value-added on oil and power and the cancellation of allegedly onerous contracts with independent power producers to significantly reduce the cost of fuel and power.

They also called for the scrapping of the Oil Deregulation Law and the Electric Power Industry Reform Act to restore and strengthen the role of the state and communities in the energy industry.

The FDC said the proposed summit recommendations such as revisiting the nuclear power option and more foreign and private investments in the energy sector, was similar to the Oil Deregulation Law, and would only ?exacerbate already serious problems.?