Charges of profiteering and blackmail have been aired by the government but it appears they are left unheeded by certain business concerns out to take advantage of the intermittent, abnormal weather condition.

In the House of Representatives, the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Food warned suppliers of essential commodities against using “abnormal market disruptions” to make huge profits.

He mentioned unexpected changes in the weather condition, act of nature, and loss of energy supply, or extraordinary circumstances to create commotion in the market.

Such practice, Congressman Diosdado “Dato” Macapagal Arroyo said, could undermine the country’s economy or threaten public health, safety, and welfare.

Also in the House, Speaker Prospero C. Nograles called on petroleum companies to refrain from making public statements on the possibilities of oil supply shortages, saying they could create public turmoil.

It sounds like blackmail, and it could boomerang on them, the House leader said.

If the purpose of such warning by the oil companies was to force the government to recall Executive Order 839 which enforces the maintenance of the October 15 oil price, it certainly does not impress the administration.

Already, administration leaders are cautioning oil industry people in unison to refrain from issuing threats and instead demonstrate their sensitivity and cooperation in this time of emergencies.

Congressman Danilo Suarez, chairman of the Committee on Oversight, justified the issuance of Executive Order 839 in view of the recent oil price hike at the height of the declaration of the state of calamity.

“Blackmailing the government about a possible oil supply shortage is certainly not a way for oil companies to help our countrymen during this difficult time,” the Quezon legislator said, adding that they should temporarily set aside their self-interest and show their cooperation with the government in trying to lighten the people’s burden brought about by the recent successive typhoons.

In the same breadth, House Bill 6419, the National Emergency Anti-Profiteering Act of 2009, gives the President limited authority to declare a state of economic emergency “and punish those guilty of profiteering by taking advantage of the people in the event of abnormal market disruptions.”

It is very clear that both Executive Order 839 and House Bill 6419 are meant to protect the citizens in time of emergencies against the whole concert of today’s business operations.

They both mean that, but they mean something more than that.

Business, we know, is after profit but surely, not at the expense of the populace and society at large.

Well, industry as the quest for livelihood has now been directed by the quest for profit – and more.

(zhern_218@yahoo.com)