Better safe than sorry

Egay Uy .

LAST week, I had a brief but fruitful talk with Department of Energy (DOE) Director Nilo Geroche of Davao.  He was in Cagayan de Oro for some official business. We talked about the DOE’s campaign against the illegal refilling and trading, and use of, single-use butane canisters.

The recent operation conducted by the Bureau of Fire Protection in Cagayan de Oro City has come to the attention of the DOE because the BFP leadership has been aggressively conducting the operation and has constantly been communicating with the DOE.

To recall, the BFP in this part of the country, led by District Fire Marshall Cabot, has confiscated more than one thousand butane canisters, both empty and illegal refilled. This, after Mayor Oscar S. Moreno issued Executive Order No. 131-2019 creating the task force that implements the DOE regulations on the matter.

I informed Director Geroche that Mayor Moreno issued the executive order after I briefed him about the relentless operation of the DOE not only in Mindanao but also in the Visayas against illegal refilling and trading, and use of, refilled single-use butane canisters. In fact, aside from the inputs generated in the meeting with the NBI, Cocpo, CIDG, BFP, licensing office of the city government, and some others, I used DOE’s slides in coming out with the draft EO.

And among the points raised by the DOE in its presentations is the request for local governments to give teeth to the campaign through local legislation via ordinances or via executive orders.

It may be recalled that our collaboration with the DOE Davao Office started much earlier through the joint operations conducted by the Cagayan de Oro City Price Coordinating Council (CdeO-CPCC) where I sit as Mayor Moreno’s co-chairman, and the DTI Misamis Oriental Provincial Office led by its Provincial Director, Ms. Almer Masillones, and the active Ms. Rozanne Marie San Juan.

The joint operations were then focused on the operation of petroleum products retailers in the city where we checked the calibration the dispensing pumps and their compliance with certain DOE regulations, e.g., Certificate of Compliance, and the proper imposition by petroleum retailers of the much-complained excise tax on petroleum products, which by the way was also slapped with the dreaded value added tax.

Batag Pambansa 33, as amended, declares as illegal the refilling and trading of petroleum products without the necessary authority or license therefor from the DOE. As I have written earlier, the pressure per square inch of liquefied petroleum gas is much lower compared to that of pure butane gas. Hence, refilling a single-use butane canister with LPG is unsafe not only because of the pressure but because the design of the canister is such that it is good only for single use.

It is best to be safe than sorry.

(Egay Uy is a lawyer. He chairs the City’s Regulatory and Complaint Board, co-chairs with the city mayor the City Price Coordinating Council, and chairs the city’s Joint Inspection Team.  He retired as a vice president of Cepalco.)