OIL companies should not impose conditions on opening their books of accounts because restricting the auditing process would make the exercise futile, a militant legislator said on Monday.
Party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna issued the statement as six oil companies belonging to the Philippine Institute of Petroleum (PIP) expressed willingness to “open their books” amid allegations of overpricing and collusion among oil firms with the clarification that any additional review should have “well-defined objectives” and should be done by “qualified individuals.”
“The PIP should not impose conditions that will make the audit difficult, limited and restrictive. We need an honest to goodness and full-blown audit to unravel the truth and establish if their pricing is fair,” said Casiño.
These companies, Casiño said, should provide all the pertinent data and documents including contracts, agreements and transactions with their suppliers and mother companies so that the people can see the whole picture.
“As it is majority of Filipinos believe that ginigisa tayo sa sarili nating mantika. We need to ascertain if these oil giants are not engaged in transfer pricing and overpricing,” Casiño said.
He said that audit process should be institutionalized and done automatically every time oil prices are adjusted, through an agency tasked to regulate prices, a mechanism the militant bloc in the House of Representatives is proposing in House Bill 4355 that seeks to repeal the Downstream Oil Deregulation Law.
The bill also provides for the buy-back of Petron, the centralized procurement of the country’s oil supplies, and the establishment of a strictly administered price buffer fund.
In addition to the measure, Casiño and other militant legislators have filed HB 2719 that removes the value-added tax on oil.
“I hope the House acts quickly to pass our two measures so that we would not be held hostage by these companies,” he said.
PIP members said on Sunday that they are willing to open their respective books in support of President Aquino’s call for transparency.
(With P. Isla)
