Repealing the oil deregulation law

BEHIND THE SCENES
Alfred P. Dizon
(First of three parts)

Our lawmakers in the national level just don’t get it or are just playing dedma or ignorant about protest actions arising from exorbitant oil prices of this Banana Republic, according to my intelligent bubwit.

Even the communications hydra at Malacanang, he says, are playing along with the tune of the Big 3 oil cartel’s pied pipers about the government not being able to do anything about oil prices because it is dictated by the world market.

Now, my bubwit wants an inquiry or investigation on who among lawmakers which include senators, congressmen, cabinet are stockholders of these oil companies – Chevron (Caltex), Petron and Shell.

This is needed, he says, because he couldn’t understand why the oil deregulation law, which is causing a lot of misery among residents of this blighted Pearl of the Orient, could not be repealed or amended so government can have more control over oil prices.

It was during the Ramos administration when this law, called Republic Act No. 8479 or “Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act" was enacted on Feb. 10, 1998. Despite strong opposition from the populace, my bubwit says this was rammed down the throats of the people.
So that people could be apprised more on what this law is all about and why there is now a clamor to repeal or amend it, we are printing hereunder some of its pertinent provisions which we will run in a four-part series.

Under Chapter 1 of its general provisions, “It shall be the policy of the State to liberalize and deregulate the downstream oil industry in order to ensure a truly competitive market under a regime of fair prices, adequate and continuous supply of environmentally-clean and high-quality petroleum products. To this end, the State shall promote and encourage the entry of new participants in the downstream oil industry, and introduce adequate measures to ensure the attainment of these goals.

Under Section 3, the “Act shall apply to all persons or entities engaged in any and all activities of the domestic downstream oil industry, as well as persons or companies directly importing refined petroleum products for their own use.”

For purposes of this Act, the following terms were defined:
(a) Basel Convention shall refer to the international accord which governs the trade or movement of hazardous and toxic wastes across borders;
(b) Board shall refer to the Energy Regulatory Board;
(c) BOI shall refer to the Board of Investments;
(d) Crude Oil shall refer to oil in its natural state before the same has been refined or otherwise treated, but excluding water, bottoms, sediments and foreign substances;
(e) Dealer shall refer to any person, whether natural or juridical, who is engaged I the marketing and direct selling of petroleum products to motorists, end users, and other consumers;
(f) DOE shall refer to the Department of Energy;
(g) DOJ shall refer to the Department of Justice;
(h) Downstream Oil Industry(DOI) or Industry shall refer to the business of importing; exporting, re-exporting, shipping, transporting, processing, refining, storing, distributing, marketing and/or selling crude oil, gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), kerosene, and other petroleum products;
(i) Hauler shall refer to any person, whether natural or juridical, engaged in the transport, distribution, hauling, and carriage of petroleum products, whether in bulk or packed form, from the oil companies and independent marketers to the petroleum dealers and other consumers;
(j) LPG Distributor shall refer to any person or entity, whether natural or juridical, engaged in exporting, refilling, transporting, marketing, and/or selling of LPG to end users and other consumers;
(k) New Industry Participants shall refer to new participants in a particular sub-sector of the downstream oil industry with investments and initial business operations commencing after January 1, 1994;
(l) Person shall refer to any person, whether natural or juridical, who is engaged in any activity of the downstream oil industry;
(m) Petroleum shall refer to the naturally occurring mixture of compounds of hydrogen and carbon with a small proportion of impurities and shall include any mineral oil, petroleum gas, hydrogen gas, bitumen, asphalt, mineral wax, and all other similar or naturally-associated substances, with the exception of coal, peat, bituminous shale and/or other stratified mineral fuel deposits;
(n) Petroleum Products shall refer to products formed in the case of refining crude petroleum through distillation, cracking, solvent refining and chemical treatment coming out as primary stocks from the refinery such as, but not limited to: LPG, naphtha, gasolines, solvents, kerosenes, aviation fuels, diesel oils, fuel oils, waxes and petrolatums, asphalt, bitumens, coke and refinery sludges, or other such refinery petroleum fractions which have not undergone any process or treatment as to produce separate chemically-defined compounds in a pure or commercially pure state and to which various substances may have been added to render them suitable for particular uses: Provided, That the resultant product contains not less than fifty percent (50%) by weight of such petroleum products;
(o) Singapore Import Parity(SIP) shall refer to the deemed landed cost of a petroleum product imported from Singapore at a free-on-board price equal to the average Singapore Posting for that product at the time of loading;
(p) Singapore Posting shall refer to the price of petroleum products periodically posted by oil refineries in Singapore and reported by independent international publications; and
(q) Wholesale Posted Price (WPP) shall refer to the ceiling price of petroleum products set by the Board based on its duly approved automatic pricing formula.