Bayan Muna presses DOE oil data to fight overpricing
MANILA, Philippines — As consumers braced for higher oil prices and a new round of excise tax on fuel products, lawmakers urged the Department of Energy (DOE) to release its “long overdue” memorandum itemizing oil prices in the country to identify overpricing companies.
Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi ordered the unbundling of prices of petroleum products in June 2018. The proposal faced strong opposition from oil firms, who argued that it is not needed in a deregulated market.
Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate and Bayan Muna chair Neri Colmenares said Thursday the memorandum could help consumers facing increasing oil prices and the implementation of the second tranche of oil excise tax hike this month.
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“We have received reports that oil companies are pressuring DOE officials not to issue the memo because they do not want the public to know the real score on their pricing mechanism,” Colmenares pointed out.
Zarate meanwhile warned oil companies to submit the oil pricing data being requested by the House committee on energy since October of 2017 or “we will be constrained to invoke the coercive powers of the Committee, like the subpoena and contempt citations.”
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“It is already 2019 and still no complete data has been given. The data is very important especially now with the implementation of the second tranche of the TRAIN law and the continuous increase in pump prices,” he added.
The DOE, Zarate said, should stop claiming that they do not know or that they cannot summon the data needed to compute the real price of oil in the country, citing Sections 12 and 15 of the Oil Deregulation Law.
“We are demanding that the DOE do its job to protect the interest of consumers. It should immediately release its oil price unbundling memo and we will see if indeed the oil companies have long been fooling the Filipino people,” Colmenares said. /cbb
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