DoE Pressed For Long-Term Measures

How To Ease Fuel Prices
By MYRNA M. VELASCO
Manila Bulletin
January 23, 2012, 12:02am


MANILA, Philippines — As it is at the receiving end of criticisms because of the relentless spikes in fuel prices, the Department of Energy (DoE) is being pressed to explore measures that will help ease the impact of rising pump costs to consumers.


Apart from the fuel technology shifts being proposed for the transport sector, Energy Secretary Rene D. Almendras vowed that investments in oil exploration will be fast-tracked to help shore up indigenous source of fuel.


The energy chief noted that the proposal of the transport groups for the government to provide a financing facility on their planned shift to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) "will have to be studied."


The transport sector is not totally receptive of the "Pantawid Pasada Program," it being just a band-aid measure which intends to help them wade through weekly pump price adjustments.


Their call will be for the government, via the DoE, to craft a program that will give them longer term solutions on unprecedented oil price hikes.


At the Inter-Agency Energy Contingency Committee meeting last January 19, it has been agreed that the Pantawid Pasada cards will have to be reloaded and that the government will set higher allocation this time.


When it was first introduced last year, the initial outlay set by Malacañang had been P450 million.


But as of end-December, the equivalent costs in the cards that have not been distributed still hovered at P200 million.


The beneficiary-drivers complained that the government's resort to more sophisticated technology such as the 'cash cards' had been less helpful because it prevents them from using it at times, merely due to technical glitches.


The array of requirements listed by the energy department has also prevented some from claiming their Pantawid Pasada cards; hence, the scale of undistributed cards until now.