A House leader couldn't help but notice the Department of Energy's (DOE) "new stance" on the 1998 Oil Deregulation Act, which it called the "root" of the problem of soaring fuel prices during the Fuel Crisis Ad Hoc Committee meeting Monday, March 7.
According to PBA Party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles, the DOE has hardly brought up the 24-year-old law as something that needed to be reviewed or changed.
"I have been the vice chairperson of the Commitee on Energy and a member of the Joint Congressional Power Commission and in my two terms in Congress, hindi naman talaga pinag-usapan ng yung revisiting of the Oil Deregulation Act (the DOE never really talks about revisiting the Oil Deregulation Law) to be honest," he said.
"Siguro noong 2019 or 2020 before the pandemic, binanggit yan (Maybe in 2019 or 2020 before the pandemic, it was mentioned) in passing but it was never a main topic. So yung pinagsasabi po ng DOE na revisiting of the Oil Deregulation Act, ang dating po sakin, pinapasa lang sa Kongreso yung problema (So what the DOE is saying now about revisiting the Oil Deregulation Act, to me, is their way of passing the problem to Congress)," Nograles noted.
"So kung ayaw tanggapin ng DOE yung problema eh di tayo na lang ang magsosolusyon nung problem. Wag na lang kayong magturuan (So if the DOE doesn't want to accept the problem, we'll solve it ourselves. You don't need to point fingers)," he further said, gnashing his teeth.
DOE Undersecretary Gerardo Erguiza attended the mixed live and virtual meeting as a resource person. The ad hoc panel sought to come up with recommendations for possible legislative action on the successive fuel price hikes.
"The root of all this problem is the Oil Deregulation Law," Erguiza said. The law basically stripped the government of any control on domestic fuel price adjustments, which are based on movements in world crude price.
It has also been repeated multiple times by DOE throughout the years that under the regime of deregulation, it can only "monitor" fuel price adjustments.
On the matter of an oil price subsidy fund, which Erguiza also pitched during the meeting, Nograles said, "I remember that was even brought up in the 17th Congress and the DOE was not even willing to talk about it."
"So ngayon, pinag-uusapan ito, pinapasa nanaman sa Kongreso. Naghahanap lang kayo ng dahilan para ipasa sa Kongreso ito (So now, we're talking about this and it's being passed on to Congress. You're just looking for a reason to pass it on to Congress)."
He ended his manifestation to the ad hoc panel by expressing his support to the "reduction or suspension of the excise taxes of the different fuels".
Later after the hearing, Nograles gave further comments to this reporter about the energy department in connection with the fuel crisis.
"I think the DOE is unprepared as with any other agency. But what I think the DOE must do is guide Congress as to fuel security and make a stand on whether or not they support the reduction or suspension of fuel excise taxes."