Now that Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III has finally been proclaimed president-elect, various sectors are wondering who will comprise his Cabinet, particularly the position of Energy chief.

One criteria for the post, observers said, is that the future Department of Energy (DoE) secretary should be able to oppose the prevailing Oil Deregulation Law of 1998 (Republic Act 8479).

“If they cannot improve upon the law, then it should be abolished,” reckoned lawyer Vladimir Cabigao, spokesperson of the Social Justice Society (SJS). The SJS is a group of lawyers that has accused the big oil companies — Pilipinas Shell, Petron Corp., Chevron Philippines (formerly Caltex) — of controlling local fuel prices through a “cartel.”

It is the much-maligned law, Cabigao said, that has allowed the oil companies to dictate fuel prices with minimal public knowledge about how they do business, particularly in the computation of prices and with their product inventory cycle. This “lack of transparency” has been a major sticking point for SJS.

Angelo Reyes, the Arroyo Cabinet journeyman who served as Energy secretary the past three years, usually blamed the “deregulated environment” of the oil industry for shackling the government from enforcing any kind of fuel price control.

Major transport groups such as the Alliance of Concerned Transport Organizations (ACTO) and Pinagka-Isang Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (PISTON) have also called on Aquino to scrap the Oil Deregulation Law once he takes over as president.

ACTO President Efren de Luna said that Aquino should pick an energy chief that would be “sensitive to the needs of consumers,” like them.