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FORMER
Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. has urged leaders and
energy-industry players in the region to set up an Asian
gas market that he envisions would help consumers have a
better chance to fending off unconscionably high oil
prices.
De
Venecia just flew in from
Moscow
via Bangkok after attending the Asian Integrated Energy
Market Forum organized by the Asian Parliamentary
Assembly.
In a
speech he delivered at the Asian energy meeting in
Moscow, de Venecia endorsed a vision of creating the
Asian gas market. “We created the Asian gas market, and
brought together West and
East Asia, where gas producers are the major consumers, including the
Philippines, China, Korea.”
He said
the mechanism for creating and implementing the Asian
gas market should benefit both producers and consumers.
According to the former Speaker, there should be cap on
the price of fuel and diesel and crude oil, because
there is always the threat of crude-oil prices reaching
“dangerous” levels.
“More
than 100 nations that are heavily indebted with very
weak dollar reserves can no longer afford the price of
crude oil,” de Venecia said.
He asked
the assembly to consider putting a cap on the price of
oil and sought the cooperation of Gulf countries and
members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries (Opec), including Saudi Arabia and Iran, as
well as major oil producers that are not Opec members
like Russia.
He
proposed the creation of a major agriculture and food
production fund and rice production fund, so that these
oil producers could recycle some of their oil profits to
solve the problem of hunger and extreme poverty in the
world today.
Meanwhile, de Venecia explained that he was with
President Arroyo in Shenzen playing golf because he was
invited to join them during the ZTE golf meeting in
China last November 6, 2007.
De
Venecia said he is willing to testify at the Senate, as
part of the search for truth behind the canceled
multimillion-peso contract for a national broadband
network with the Chinese telecom giant ZTE.
There is
a continuing investigation by the Senate on the
controversial ZTE broadband deal, where the President
and her husband have been dragged owing to allegations
that the deal was approved under questionable
circumstances, and amid bribery offers. |
