DOE Secretary Garin urges probe on oil firms' 'anti-competitive behavior'

Energy Secretary Sharon Garin on Friday said allegations that oil companies are colluding with one another as regards fuel price adjustments should be investigated.

At a Palace press briefing, Garin said the Department of Energy had coordinated with the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) to check if there was ''anti-competitive behavior'' among oil companies.

''I think ang issue is nag-uusap-usap ba sila kung ano iyong oil price hike. That is a behavior that should be investigated, 'no. At kinausap po namin iyong PCC to check kung mayroon ngang anti-competitive behavior po among them,'' Garin said.

(The issue is whether they are talking about what the oil price hike should be. That is behavior that should be investigated. We talked to the PCC to check if there are anti-competitive behaviors among oil firms.)

Garin said the DOE could provide the information the PCC needed. She also suggested a review of the system for adjusting fuel product prices.

GMA News Online has sought comments from the major fuel companies in the country and will publish them as soon as they are available.

In a statement on Friday, the PCC said that under the Philippine Competition Act, it is tasked with ensuring that competition remains fair and that market outcomes are not exacerbated by collusion or exclusionary conduct of market participants.

With the ongoing pressures in global and domestic fuel markets, the antitrust watchdog said it “is closely monitoring market behavior to guard against businesses that may take advantage of the ongoing energy crisis.”

“The PCC is monitoring not only fuel markets, but also downstream markets which rely on fuels as inputs to production,” it said.

House Ways and Means panel chair Miro Quimbo on Thursday called on the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the PCC to look into the "possible collusion" of oil companies when it comes to weekly fuel price adjustments.

Quimbo made the appeal after Secretary Arsenio Balisacan of the Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DepDev) told the first hearing of the Legislative Energy Action and Development (LEAD) Joint Committee on Wednesday that regulators should exercise their powers to ensure that oil firms are playing fair.

Quimbo backed Balisacan, saying that stronger enforcement by the PCC and the ERC is in order, particularly amid the ongoing oil crisis driven by the escalating tension in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Garin said the government had not considered fuel rationing amid the tight global supply driven by heightened tensions in the Middle East

''We never discussed it, we never considered it,'' Garin said at a press briefing when asked if the implementation of this scheme is imminent amid fuel price hikes.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian earlier urged the Department of Energy (DOE) to explore the possibility of implementing a fuel rationing scheme amid energy challenges caused by the tensions in the Middle East.

Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate Committee on Proactive Response and Oversight for Timely and Effective Crisis Strategy (PROTECT), has said in a preliminary report that rationing could help stretch the country’s fuel supply and prevent hoarding during the crisis.

Further, the lawmaker said the proposed policy could remain in place until the country’s fuel supply becomes more stable.

Motorists should expect a breather next week with a round of pump price rollbacks after a series of mega fuel price hikes since the Middle East conflict broke out in February.

Citing results of Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) trading in the past four days, an oil industry source said the estimated reductions in pump prices are as follows:

    Diesel - P5.50 to P6.50 per liter
    Gasoline - unchanged to P1.00 per liter

—BAP/LDF/NB, GMA News