The Department of Energy (DoE) warned retailers against selling liquid petroleum gas over prices prescribed in President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Executive Order (EO) 839 which froze prices of oil products in Luzon.

Meanwhile, Senator Joker Arroyo broke his silence about oil price and blasted foreign oil companies for continuously criticizing without letup Executive Order 839 that temporarily regulates the prices of oil products.

“It is the height of callousness for foreign oil companies and their lackeys to continuously criticize without let-up EO 839 which temporarily regulates the prices of oil products,” an irate Senator Arroyo said in a statement.

Arroyo issued this statement after the President ordered the DoE to study the possibility of lifting a price cap on petroleum products after the Joint Foreign Chambers pressed the lifting of EO, adding that the effect of order is to cause shortages of oil products and a black market.

DoE Undersecretary Roy Kyamko caught red-handed at least two outlets in Quezon City that were selling their LPG cylinders at a price higher than prescribed in EO 839.

“We will make a report about this and forward this to the joint task force (composed of the DoE and Department of Justice),” said Kyamko, the executive director of the Presidential Task Force on the Security of Energy Facilities and Enforcement of Energy Laws and Standards.

“The joint task force will then evaluate this and decide on what legal action to take,” the official said.

The senator said that two devastating calamities have visited parts of the Philippines creating a national emergency of unthinkable proportions. The cost of oil has a devilish chain reaction on almost all products for transport.

The government did not take over the oil business as the Constitution permits. After all, they cannot run business. It simply ordered the reduction of oil prices for the duration of the emergency. At some point, the reduced price would be lifted, he said.

“Oil companies are amongst the biggest money earners year after year. Their supporters say that oil is a deregulated industry and therefore, it cannot be subjected to price fixing. Oil companies maintain that they can't sell their products at a price lower than what it costs them.

That proposition is correct in normal times. But in an emergency, it is correct for government to intervene. Failing that, the government fails the people, Senator Arroyo emphasized.

On Tuesday afternoon, a DoE inspection team headed by Kyamko found dozens of different-branded cooking gas tanks being kept at a shanty-turned-stockroom along Agham Road in front of Philippine Science High School (PSHS).

“A concerned citizen tipped us that overpriced LPG tanks were stocked here,” said Kyamko. Sure enough, the inspectors discovered that Island Gas cylinders were being sold there at P548, some P33 over the price cap of P515 for every 11-kilo tank.

Island Gas, an independent retailer- brand, apparently raised prices by P3 a kilo last November 1, Kyamko said. Ruel Lim, owner of the LPG outlet, said their dealers hiked prices so they had to follow suit.

Later that day, another LPG retail outlet along Commonwealth was found selling Gasul (Petron Corp.) tanks that were deemed “overpriced” by P40.

However, Kyamko clarified that it was not within their mandate to shut down the establishments that were caught violating the EO.

“This is not a closure or a raid. We will just initiate a complaint before the task force,” Kyamko said about their operation, although the outlets were advised by the DoE team to follow the prescribed price and comply with the EO.

Earlier, the LPG Marketers Association (LPGMA) asked the energy department to establish a suggested retail price (SRP) for cooking gas to save retailers from confusion.

“There is a big price range between retailers and wholesalers. Without a standard retail price (SRP), LPG retailers may impose the high end of the price range,” said Arnel Ty, LPGMA president.

Arroyo’s EO, which she gave out last October 23, directed all oil players in Luzon to revert to their “October 15 price levels” and keep them there until the State of Calamity is lifted.

The senator from Makati city supported Malacanang’s position in coming out with the EO.

He cited section 17, article XII of the 1987 Constitution which states that ‘’in times of national emergency, when the public interest so requires, the State may, during the emergency and under reasonable terms prescribed by it, temporarily takes over or direct the operation of any privately-owned public utility or business affected by public interest.’’