Establishment of DOE regional office still farfetched – Usec. Asirit

TACLOBAN CITY–The establishment of a possible regional office of the Department of Energy in this region is still impossible at this point due to financial constraints, said DOE Undersecretary Josefina Patricia Asirit.

“Unfortunately, the DOE as far as budgetary share is concerned we are second to the last among national government agencies that is why administratively establishing regional offices of DOE in various region will be costly for us,” Asirit explained.

At present, aside from the central office of the DOE in the National Capital Region there are three satellite offices located in Pangasinan for Luzon, Cebu for Visayas and in Davao for Mindanao.

The issue on having a regional office of DOE in the region arises due to complains that it is costly for those who have complain with the DOE to travel to Cebu just to air their grievances against high prices on energy and oil.

Among the main problem that is being experienced by residents in this region is the inability of the fuel and liquefied petroleum gas distributors to implement roll back in national level.

But even with said problem Asirit promised that the DOE is doing all efforts to address the grievances of consuming public by conducting forums in every provinces and regions just like yesterday’s Energy Sector Information and Education Campaign held in this city.

Aside from forums, Asirit added that through the advancement of technology those who have complains can always use the Internet by directing to their website or write an e-mail to their office regarding complains of consumers.

Asirit added that the close coordination of the all national government agencies like the DOE with various local government units is also a way for them to know problems existing in various provinces in the country.

“We are hopeful that with this linkage we can address problems of the consuming public with regards to energy, fuel and LPG,” she stressed.

“But as far as the establishments of regional office in every region like here in Eastern Visayas, it is still far from possibility” she added. (ROEL AMAZONA)