‘Oil firms willing to share burden of typhoon victims’

Oil firms have shown that they are willing to work with the government and have proposed different packages of relief for victims of recent calamities after protesting government’s freeze on fuel on oil prices, Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said yesterday.

“This morning’s meeting went very well. Everybody had the same direction of responding and addressing the problem. We even received proposals from the oil companies on various modes of responding to the problem,” she told reporters in an interview following to the government task force’s meeting with representatives of the oil firms.

“During our meeting, there is no such attitude of protest (from oil firms) just like what we’ve been reading in the papers…We are not contradicting each other anymore. We were able to rise above the situation and found a consensus,” she said.

Devanadera said the issue on the possible scarcity of supply of oil in the country as a result of the price freeze was not raised during the meeting, but that among the proposals raised was the selection of specific localities that would benefit from the relief package, including the possibility of handing to typhoon victims discounts on fuel.

“We will present these proposal (to the National Disaster Coordinating Council) in our meeting tomorrow (today),” she said.

The Justice chief also stressed that while the oil firms still complained about the adverse effects of the oil price freeze on their businesses, they were willing to help as long as “benefits of relief would go to those who really need them.”

Devanadera also said she told the oil firms that the government appreciates their other corporate social responsibility programs in response to the recent calamities.

She explained that under Section 14 (e) of the Oil Deregulation Law, the government, through the Department of Energy and its secretary, has the power to temporarily take over or direct the operation of players in the oil industry in times of national emergencies and calamities. –Benjamin B. Pulta, Daily Tribune