Manufacturers of gas cylinders and legitimate dealers have urged Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and the chairmen of the committees on trade and energy to expedite the passage of a measure that sets up the standards for the LPG industry and punishes illegal refilling and the use of dilapidated imported cylinders.

The LPG Federated Dealers' Association (LFDA) and the Philippine Association of LPG Cylinder Manufacturers, Inc. (PALCMI) issued the call to Enrile, Sen. Mar Roxas, chairman of the Senate committee on trade, and Sen. Gregorio Honasan, head of the energy committee, following the approval of House Bill No. 5942, known as the LPG Bill, at the House of Representatives.

"We urgently call on Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Senator Mar Roxas, chairman of the Senate Committee on Trade, and Senator Gregorio Honasan, chairman of the Senate Committee on Industry, and all other members of the Senate to pass this vital piece of legislation," they said.

House Bill No. 5942, which sets the regulatory framework for the industry and bans the use of tampered and substandard LPG cylinders, was passed in the Lower House after more than four years of hearings and public consultations.

LFDA and PALCMI stressed that the problems of the industry worsened after the Oil Deregulation Law was passed in 1997 and unscrupulous players entered the market to sell tampered and underweight LPG products "without fear of prosecution."

"Every day, unwary customers all over the country are cheated by unscrupulous refillers and retailers by selling them underfilled LPG tanks. Billions are lost annually to these vultures," the two associations added.

In reiterating their plea for the quick passage of the LPG Law, the same groups said: "We must protect our families, homes, property and communities from the threat of fires caused by unsafe and illegal LPG gas cylinders."

From 2001 to 2004, more than 900 fires were traced to exploding gas tanks. Scores of lives were also lost due to dilapidated gas tanks, tampered LPG products, bogus seals and improperly filled cylinders, the groups noted.

At the same time, they asked the Senate to approve its own version of HB 5942 to stop "unbridled smuggling of junk LPG cylinders from other countries and, in the process, protect the billion-peso domestic LPG cylinder manufacturing industry from imminent collapse."

"The government has lost billions of pesos in taxes from the illegal importation of these LPG cylinders junked in other countries as scrap and reused locally by dishonest dealers and their retailers." the two groups said.

So pervasive is the smuggling of these substandard cylinders that 10 legitimate manufacturers of LPG tanks have shut down, leaving many workers jobless and government losing millions of pesos on taxes, they said.

"The government must plug the huge tax leakage amounting to millions of pesos annually resulting from illegal and questionable practices of unscrupulous elements in the LPG industry," they added.

The LPGFDA and PALCMI noted that "the existing laws on consumer protection and unfair trade practices are insufficient to stop illegal activities and malpractices that are wreaking havoc on the LPG industry and posing real threats to the lives and property of consumers, communities and businesses."