Calbayog City (August 16) – Department of Energy (DOE) wrapped up today the Focused Inspection it conducted to gasoline stations in Calbayog City, Samar (west) and Northern Samar Provinces since Tuesday.

Focused Inspection is a special activity done by DOE to make sure liquid fuels being sold in gasoline stations are compliant to the quality standard set by DOE and at the same time protect the consumers from buying adulterated fuel products, said Harold Longakit, Science Research Specialist II, one of the 20-man team sent to Samar by DOE.

He said that while the inspection covers the whole Samar and N.Samar Provinces , they only collect samples of the liquid fuels in a random and in a surprise manner and brought them to Calbayog City for initial analysis where they set up their apparatus for the same purpose.

Once a gasoline station is found guilty of product adulteration and with due cause, it may suffer penalties like a P200K fines with cease and desist order for the first offense and a P300K fines and possible closure for the second offense, Longakit further said.

Department was created due to Republic Act No. 7638 otherwise known as the Department of Energy Act of 1992 during the time of Pres. Fidel V. Ramos and is responsible for preparing, integrating, manipulating, organizing, coordinating, supervising and controlling all plans, programs, projects and activities of the Government relative to energy exploration, development, utilization, distribution and conservation.

According to Longakit the Focused Inspection that they conducted in Calbayog city, Samar and N.Samar is within the mandate of the Oil Industry Management Bureau of DOE.

Aside from liquid fuel quality audit their office is also task to fuel pump calibration, and liquified petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder check if it contains the required weight paid by the consumers, Longakit added.