The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) yesterday said it is preparing a package of solutions or a roadmap to address the country’s looming energy problem.

PCCI chairman emeritus Donald Dee said the group is thinking of a subsidy, a foreign currency adjustment mechanism to help businesses and consumers cope up with rising oil prices.

PCCI will present the roadmap in the ongoing energy summit and submit the same to President Arroyo.

The PCCI said the government can reallocate collections from value-added tax on petroleum as subsidy to the transport sector to help them cope with the increasing prices of oil.

The PCCI also said the government should set up an automatic foreign currency adjustment mechanism that can be used on generation, transmission and distribution of utility charges applicable to all including government-owned power plants and contracted independent power producers, the Transmission Corp. and the distribution utilities.

At the same time, the PCCI joined calls for the removal of all royalties on indigenous fuels through legislation. This move would significantly reduce the energy rate in the country as royalties comprise the biggest portion of power bill. Royalties are shares from the earnings the government has been taking from geothermal plants across the country and plants fuelled by natural gas from Palawan.

The PCCI said the government should prioritize the privatization of Tiwi and Macban power plants to achieve 70 percent of the privatization target of the National Power Corp.

Meanwhile Renewable Energy Coalition said the country can save as much as $3.6 billion per year on energy expenses if renewable energy is sued.

Catherine Maceda, RE coalition representative, said in her presentation in the on-going Energy Summit that the savings can be used to build classrooms, health centers and roads.

Energy secretary Angelo Reyes yesterday also cited the need to reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels.

Reyes said that confronting the crisis "will require a whole slew of strategic interventions in the management of energy supply and demand".

On the other hand, the government is set to implement today the 2 percentage point reduction of tariff in imported oil that results to P1 per liter reductions in diesel products. This reduction has been pass on to the end consumers.

Eduardo Hernandez president Petroleum Association of the Philippines (PAP) also said that government needs to come up with aconcrete plan for the exploration arrangement in South China Sea including the disputed Spratly’s island.