Lawmaker convicted in illegal gas refill case
A Malabon City court has convicted a lawmaker for unauthorized refilling of cooking gas cylinders of major petroleum companies in 2004.
Rep. Arnel Ty of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers’ Association (LPGMA) party-list was found guilty of violating Batas Pambansa 33, which defines and penalizes certain prohibited acts inimical to the public interest and national security involving petroleum or petroleum products.
Ty is the owner of the Republic Gas Corp. (Regasco) refilling plant in Malabon.
In a decision received by the Department of Justice on Friday, Malabon Regional Trial Court Branch 55 Judge Ofelia Contreras-Soriano ordered Ty to pay a fine of P50,000 with subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency.
The court also ordered the cancellation of Regasco’s license to operate and forfeiture of the petroleum products seized from its warehouse in favor of the government.
It rejected Ty’s claim that the empty and underfilled LPG cylinders seized from Regasco’s warehouse were part of a marketing strategy.
The court ruled that Ty failed to justify the presence of LPG tanks of Shell, Petron and Total Gas in the warehouse.
Ty had admitted in court that his firm was not authorized by the Department of Energy to refill LPG cylinders for other oil companies.
The court gave weight to the testimony of prosecution witness, National Bureau of Investigation agent Marvin de Jemil, who led a test-buy operation in Ty’s refilling plant on Feb. 6, 2004.
De Jemil testified that he witnessed the actual refilling of empty LPG cylinders of Petron Gasul and Shellane by Regasco personnel.
Petron and Shell filed charges of unfair competition and trademark infringement against Ty in 2004.