MANILA, Philippines--Leaders of the House of Representatives are of two minds when it comes to the lifting of the order putting a ceiling on prices of petroleum products during calamity period.
Executive Order 839 was implemented two weeks ago which mandates oil companies to bring down prices of petroleum products to the October 15 level.
The order freezing oil prices will last while the state of calamity the President has declared ?in the entire Luzon? is in effect. Arroyo issued the order in the wake of the recent storms that devastated large swaths of Luzon, including Metro Manila.
Speaker Prospero Nograles said he was amenable to lift EO 839 ?provided oil companies will agree to full disclosure of their stock inventories and importation records that will justify any price adjustment as soon as the EO is lifted.?
?The only way we can have the most accurate conclusion is for the oil firms to open their books and show the public that all the negative things attributed to them are just misperceptions,? he said in a statement.
?I understand that business is for profit, but raking in unreasonable profits at the expense of public interest and when the public is left with no or little choice is absolutely unconscionable,? Nograles added.
The Joint Foreign Chambers and the Management Association of the Philippines on Monday issued a statement urging the government to terminate EO 839, saying it has an adverse effect on the oil firms and on the economy.
Other groups have also expressed concern over EO 839, among them the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Makati Business Club, and the Federation of Philippine Industries.
But Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo said that the President should not yield to the demand of foreign and local businessmen.
"Instead of heeding the JFC,MAP, et al, Malacańang should defy their warnings and threats, and remain firm in implementing EO 839. There has been a long-standing need to regulate the prices of oil and petroleum products in the Philippines and it had to take a series of major calamities for the government to impose it,? Ocampo said.
?The oil cartel and their partners have been chaffing at the bit because their profiteering has been reined in. Their arguments against price controls are blatantly self-serving and do not serve the public good," he added.
Ocampo also challenged the Palace not only to maintain price controls but to overhaul the oil industry by regulating and eventually nationalizing it.
Ocampo is one of the authors of a measure pending in the chamber calling for a repeal of the oil deregulation law.
