The 1-United Transport Koalition is filing a petition next week against the Department of Energy and the Department of Justice before the Regional Trial Court in Bacolod City seeking the nullification of R.A. 8479, or the Oil Deregulation Law.

The petition said there is a need to declare the whole R.A. 8470 unconstitutional for its failure to define and set guidelines for the determination of a “fair price” that will set into motion the enforcement of the anti-trust provisions of the same law.

It said the regime of fair prices is primordial in R.A. 8479 but nowhere in the law was it stated what is a “fair price” leaving the public in the quandary as to its definition under the purview of the Oil Deregulation Law.

The petition said that the so-called anti-trust provisions were deemed by Congress so important that it was crafted as R.A. 8479’s penal provisions for possible violations of the Oil Deregulation Law.

But the failure to define or set guidelines for the definition of a fair price effectively puts into a halt from its inception the operation of the anti-trust provisions of R.A. 8479, it said.

This leads the public open to possible and unverified abuse of oil companies in the determination of oil prices, as they are simply put, unchecked and unmonitored, it added.

1-UTAK national chairman Vigor Mendoza II, they cited the case of Southern Hemisphere Engagement Network, Inv. Versus Anti-Terrorism Council that was decided on Oct. 5, 2010 where the Supreme Court affirmed the Void for Vagueness Doctrine,” that hold that if a law is vague, it should be declared void.

During a press conference in Bacolod City yesterday that was attended by representatives of the different transport groups in Bacolod and Negros Occidental, Mendoza said they will file the petition on September 22

He said that on September 21 most of the national transport leaders and civil society groups the have invited will be in to Bacolod among them the Pinagkaisang Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide.

“We hope that, through Bacolod, we can unify the rest of the Visayas and then move forward,” Mendoza said.

He said he cannot understand why prices of fuel is higher in the Visayas compared to other regions despite the explanation of the DOE that this is due to transhipment cost and lack of competition.

Mendoza recalled that during the 14th Congress, when he sat as 1-UTAK Partylist representative, he filed a Resolution concerning the matter but it did not result to anything, so he opted to take the judicial remedy, he said.

However, Mendoza said if they do not win the case, at most what should come out is that “Everybody will agree on what reasonable pricing (of fuel) is and we can start from there.”

Hopefully, the case will be resolved before Christmas, he added.*CGS

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