President Rodigo Duterte has fired the head of the Philippine National Oil Co-Exploration Corp. for "loss of confidence."
"The Palace confirms that Pedro Aquino Jr., chief executive officer of the PNOC-EC, as well as a board member, to submit their courtesy resignation. The President's order is still in line with his anti-corruption campaign in the government," presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said.
"This underscores once again that there are no sacred cows under this administration," Panelo added.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, for his part, Aquino was suspended for approving a memorandum of agreement with a Russian firm for the development of a multilateral cooperation in oil products and trading, and joint participation in oil refining without the permission from the board or from Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi.
Cusi declined to comment on the suspension of Aquino who served as OIC-president of the PNOC in 2006. He was later appointed as PNOC EC president in 2012 and reappointed by President Rodrigo Duterte in January 2017.
Aquino did not respond to queries but Gatchalian said this highlights the need for a clear policy direction for the entire PNOC family.
“We could have prevented this situation if we had a more focused PNOC. Unfortunately, the PNOC is spreading itself too thin by doing different things when its focus should be on oil and gas exploration,” Gatchalian said.
He said PNOC EC is supposed to be tasked with exploration, but this recent deal shows its intent to go into petroleum trading. PNOC EC owns a 10 percent stake in the Malampaya gas project in northwest Palawan.
Meanwhile, Gatchalian said the PNOC mother company wants to go into liquefied natural gas, while the PNOC Renewables Corp. is building solar rooftops.
“We plan to remedy this situation by championing in this Congress a measure that will restructure PNOC by abolishing its existing subsidiaries and directing its focus away from non-exploration activities. The bottom line here is that we will refocus the PNOC to purely upstream oil and gas so that it will contribute in securing the country’s energy needs,” Gatchalian said.
Gatchalian added that there is a need for a clear policy direction for the entire PNOC family.
Meanwhile, Gatchalian said the PNOC mother company wants to go into LNG, while the PNOC Renewables Corporation (RC) is building solar rooftops.
“We plan to remedy this situation by championing in this Congress a measure that will restructure PNOC by abolishing its existing subsidiaries and directing its focus away from non-exploration activities.
He said the bottom line here is that we will refocus the PNOC to purely upstream oil and gas so that it will contribute in securing the country’s energy needs.