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EJ Macababbad - The Philippine Star
April 17, 2026 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Energy (DOE) has begun controlling pump prices by announcing minimum rollbacks and maximum hikes, with the state of national energy emergency in effect.
Energy Secretary Sharon Garin cited the Downstream Oil Deregulation Law of 1998, which empowers the agency to temporarily take over the operations of oil companies in times of national emergency.
For this week, diesel prices dropped by at least P20.89 per liter, kerosene by P8.50 per liter, and gasoline by P4.43 per liter, as Garin announced last Saturday. Some reports, however, said that industry estimates were far from the DOE’s calculations, with Garin threatening non-compliant firms with lawsuits.
“It is kind of price setting in that sense,” Garin told The STAR’s online show “Truth on the Line” on Thursday night. “In times like now, since it’s a national energy emergency, the oil deregulation law … allows the government to take over the business or the operations, so, in that sense, we have to assert our authority over that because it’s a national emergency.”
“We need to regulate how much companies charge the public because people are suffering enough, so we announce the minimum rollback,” Garin stressed.
To justify its calculations, the DOE on Wednesday showed the mechanics of this week’s rollbacks: product and freight costs, coupled with a stronger peso, led to steep declines in pump prices.
Garin earlier indicated that another rollback is looming for next week, but she wouldn’t disclose figures since trading at the benchmark Mean of Platts Singapore is until Friday. The DOE is using a five-day average to calculate adjustments.
She asserted that whatever rollback or hike the DOE suggests does not come on a whim. “We don’t do this arbitrarily, that this should be the decrease without [disclosing] the math and accounting behind it,” Garin said. “We do the usual calculation … and we compare that result to the previous week, which we have done all the time ever since.”
“We’re being fair to the oil companies, but we are protecting the interests of the public,” the DOE chief emphasized.
Despite controlling prices, Garin stopped short of backing proposals to implement price caps, since the country has no domestic oil production.
Price control is one of the orders that the DOE mandated with oil players, along with unbundling pump prices and regularly reporting fuel storage capabilities.
The DOE has given companies until Friday to submit additional information on the breakdown of their cost components.
The Supreme Court has given the DOE full backing in requesting the unbundled prices from oil players, as the justices of the First Division unanimously affirmed Department Circular 2019-05-0008.
In the 2024 ruling Philippine Institute of Petroleum Inc. v. DOE (GR 266310), the magistrates noted that the oil deregulation law has empowered the energy secretary to “require prior notification and submission of detailed reports, together with the power to impose penal sanctions.”
The ruling has a caveat, though. The Supreme Court recognizes that certain information is confidential in character; thus, it cannot be shared with unauthorized third persons or the public.
On March 18, the DOE issued Department Order 2026-03-008, which provides information security guidelines for implementing the 2019 department circular. The agency outright classifies all data and reports it receives as “strictly confidential.”
“The DOE may use the data and reports submitted by the oil companies to produce its own derivative work, and the latter shall not be covered by any binder of secrecy or confidentiality,” the order states.
