DOE berates oil firms, imposes 'gag' order vs price projections

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Energy on Wednesday berated oil firms for announcing price projections which tend to "cartelize" the industry. At the same time, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes ordered the firms to refrain from giving and making price projections as it creates panic. "It will not serve anybody any good if oil players will make projections or announcements which could be wrong," Reyes said during a meeting with industry players. The DOE chief said that while we have the freedom to speak, we should also examine what would be its implications if we make wrong projections. “We have freedom of expressions but we should look also at its consequences," the Energy chief said during the power stakeholders meeting Wednesday. During the meeting, Reyes scored Arnel Ty, president of the LPG Marketers Association (LPGMA) for announcing last week a P3.50 increase in the prices of LPG. Reyes said that as market player, Ty has no right making such pronouncement or price increase projections since the main purpose of the oil deregulation is fair competition. “You can't announce based on future projection. You do not try to be the spokesman of everybody, you try to be the leader of the association. Your cartelizing the industry...your supposed to compete with each other. You should not be a trend-setter," the incensed Reyes said. Aside from Ty, Secretary Reyes also criticized oil firms for saying that prices will increase further because they need to recover at least P3 in May and still undetermined amount for the month of June. Reyes stressed that price projections being announced by oil companies makes the consumers jittery and create panic. “Stay out on making any statement that would cause undue panic," he added. Oil executives for their part said they do not view the order of Reyes not to give projections as “gag" but primarily to stop creating panic. “We do not have a supply problem…but price problem," said Fernando Martinez, president of Eastern Petroleum, even as he admitted that giving price projections really cause some tension and panic among the consumers. Virginia Ruivivar, public affairs manager for Petron , echoed this sentiment. “As prices are rising so fast mahirap nga naman mag-issue ka ng projections because this will make people more apprehensive," Ruivivar said. Reyes pointed out that since the oil industry in the country is deregulated, prices should be dictated by the market. - GMANews.TV