Stakeholders Unload Oil Price Hike Concerns, Submit Proposals
in Energy Summit

PRESS RELEASE
5 February 2008

The 2008 Philippine Energy Summit held 29-31 January at the SMX at Mall of Asia triggered a deluge of multi-stakeholder concerns and suggestions on how to respond to the oil price spike and its impact on the economy and on vulnerable sectors.

The output of the Summit consisting of the compilation and documentation of the plenary presentations and proceedings of the workshops, as well as the initial analysis by DOE technical experts of the proposals, were presented to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today at the SMX Convention Center.
The summit attracted a swarm of representatives from government, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and people’s organizations, which took the opportunity to voice their sentiments and share their perspectives. On several occasions, the plenary sessions and the workshops were standing-room only events. At one time, the plenary hall was packed with 1,600 participants, and in the workshops designed for a maximum of 70 participants, turnout reached as high as 150.

The Energy Summit apparently responded to felt need, and representatives of what may be called the Philippine Energy Stakeholder Community came out in droves to participate and be heard.

The Energy Summit was partly an immediate response to the oil price spike, as indicated by its theme “$100 per Barrel: Crisis or Opportunity?” It turned out to be a comprehensive, short to long term reflection and sharing on the energy problem in its various dimensions and manifestations.

Energy Secretary Angelo T. Reyes, in his welcome address, said that the “Energy Summit bears a strong sense of urgency”. The summit theme, he said, suggests that this sense of urgency created by the oil price spike should be channeled to constructive ends by bringing the energy stakeholders together for a common response to the problem.

The summit was a well-orchestrated succession of substantive and candid presentations by over a hundred national and regional leaders and experts in the field of energy representing the oil industry, export and industry, transport, consumer, labor and academe to share their perspectives on ten specific issue areas.

Beyond responding to oil price increases, the ten workshops tacked a broad range of issues: “Accelerating Investments in Oil and Gas Exploration and Development “, “Promoting Renewable Energy: Regulatory Framework and Policy Direction”, “Promoting Renewable Energy: Market and Financial Barriers”, “Promoting Renewable Energy: Technology Options”, “Promoting Energy Efficiency and Conservation in the Philippines”, “Lowering Power Rates for Industry Competitiveness and Consumer Welfare”, “Responding to High Oil Prices”, “Alternative Fuels: Issues and Concerns”, “Scaling up Best Energy Practices across Sectors through Social Mobilization”, and “Setting Success Indicators and Mechanics for Monitoring Cross-sectoral Interventions”.

These topics were discussed in plenary sessions with main speakers and discussants, as well as in workshops that presented another set of main speakers and discussants. The workshops that followed the plenary presentations were designed to elicit the participants’ own views of problems and gaps, issues and concerns relating to energy. In the same workshops, the participants were asked to identify and propose solutions to these problems. To get a sense of the relative importance and feasibility of these initiatives, the participants were asked to prioritize the initiatives.

Secretary Reyes set the tone for the Summit when he said that, “The summit is an effort to listen to the views of the various stakeholders”. He reminded his staff that “The extent of buy-in and ownership of the process and product of the summit is directly proportional to its participatory nature.”
In addition to the informative plenary presentations that have been uploaded onto the DOE website (www.doe.gov.ph/esummit ), the Summit thus produced no less than ten workshop reports that generated over statements of 500 problems and gaps, issues and concerns, and identification of over 100 specific initiatives that need to be undertaken by government, private sector, NGOs, people’s organizations, and cross-sectoral actors.

Over the next two days, February 1 and 2, the Asian Development Bank hosted over a hundred DOE officials and government, private, and NGO resource persons in its headquarters in Ortigas Center to identify emergent priority initiatives from the Summit workshops. The identified priority initiatives were packaged into seven programs – Power Cost Management, Conventional Energy, Renewable and Alternative Energy, Energy Efficiency, Oil Price Management, and two cross-cutting or linking programs – Social Mobilization and Performance Monitoring. In view of the complexity and sensitivity of many energy issues, the emergent priority initiatives and other supporting initiatives that have been identified in the follow-on workshop at ADB will be processed further in post-summit consultative workshops with energy stakeholders.