Aquino thumbs down emergency powers

April 14, 2011
MANILA – President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday remained hesitant to use his emergency powers to address the looming oil crisis despite assurance from members of Congress.
“Right now, we are not contemplating emergency powers,” Presidential Development and Strategic Planning Secretary Ricky Carandang said in an interview during the Balikatan Exercise 2011 at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija on Wednesday.
Carandang said the President has to consider several factors before accepting the emergency powers lawmakers are proposing.
“What will those emergency powers be used specifically for? What are the proposals? And if it will be granted, what are the parameters? We don’t know exactly what they are offering,” he said.
House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. earlier expressed his willingness to consider granting emergency powers to Aquino in the wake of continuing oil price hikes amid political conflict in oil-producing countries in the Middle East.
Senator Gregorio Honasan also supported the proposal.
Asked what would warrant the President to consider emergency powers, Carandang said: “At this point we don’t see the need for it. We believe that there are solutions that we can do without invoking emergency powers.”
“If someone has an idea that sounds good, that will require emergency powers, we might consider it. But right now, it’s not in our radar,” he added.
Several lawmakers were not satisfied with how the government responded to the problem on oil supply despite the government’s efforts; for instance, granting fuel subsidy to transport sectors.
In another development, Carandang said the government still has no final decision yet on whether to extend fuel subsidy to fisherfolk and farmers.
He said the economic managers are still studying the proposal of the Department of Agriculture.
“We can’t assure yet if they (fisherfolk and farmers) will be included in the fuel subsidy. It would depend on a number of factors. First of all how much fuel they might need, how much help they might need, how many they are and how much funds can be spared for this,” he said.
Additional funding on top of the P450-million initial fund for the transport sector will be needed if the subsidy will be extended to fisherfolk and farmers.
Carandang also dismissed the possibility of implementing the subsidy to the agriculture sector in the next two weeks as claimed by Alcala.
“What we can assure to you is the subsidy for transport groups but for the fishermen and farmers we are not sure,” he said.
President Aquino recently issued Executive Order No. 32 granting fuel assistance to jeepney and tricycle drivers.
Carandang however is not certain whether there is a need for another order if the extension is approved.
DOJ probes oil price hikes
Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Wednesday said that she will create a new fact-finding panel that will look into the recent spate of oil price increases and to determine whether the oil firms are liable for violation of the Oil Deregulation Law.
In an ambush interview, de Lima said the new panel, which would likely be called as the “DOJ office for Competition,” will be separate from the joint DOJ-Department of Energy (DOE) task force created by erstwhile Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez which was tasked to conduct an audit of the book of accounts of the oil firms.
De Lima said the creation of the new office is DOJ’s response to calls by various sectors to check on the regularity of recent oil price hikes, considering pending charges of cartelization and predatory pricing against major oil firms in courts.
Covered by the scope of the new panel’s investigation would be the 12 successive price hikes implemented since the start of this year until last Monday’s P1.50 increase in pump prices, as well as complaints of cartelization, monopoly and other restrictive agreements among the oil firms that may be filed before the department.
The proposed body, she explained, would conduct “fact-finding investigations and determine whether violations of anti-trust and related laws are being committed by persons, natural and juridical.”
Appropriate recommendations would then be made, including filing of charges against those who would be found liable for possible manipulation and cartelization in oil prices, she said.
“This body will faithfully carry out constitutional and existing legal provisions against combinations in restraint of trade. Proceedings will depend on the specific industry and/or nature of the case,” she said.
De Lima said she thought of creating the new investigating body to check on the pricing mechanisms of oil firms in the interest of the public, which has been complaining about the successive oil price hikes this year that had also resulted to increase in prices of basic goods.
“Deregulation or privatization does not mean big business is free to do anything under the sun. Public welfare is paramount,” she said, as she called on the DOJ-DOE task force to once again convene to discuss the issue.
Early this week, the three biggest oil industry players in the country — Chevron, Pilipinas Shell and Petron Corp. — as well as Total Philippines increased their pump prices to as high as P49 per liter of diesel and P60.81 per liter of gasoline, citing rise in the global prices of petroleum products owing to the unrest in Middle East and Libya.
In 2009, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Executive Order 839, which froze fuel prices in the entire Luzon in response to successive price hikes. This was revoked few weeks later after oil companies threatened to file suits against the government. (Jill Beltran/JCV/Sunnex)

Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2011/04/14/aquino-thumbs-down-emergency-powers-150287

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