The amendment of the 34-year-old Oil Deregulation Law is unlikely to pass within the remaining months of President Rodrigo Duterte in the Palace, a Department of Energy official said on Monday.

Duterte steps down as president on June 30.

"At this point, the ball is in the Congress. It’s the desire of the Executive branch. We hope to complete this. But realistically speaking, we do not have control over this (election) period, because our legislators have different activities," Energy Undersecretary Gerardo Erguiza said during the ''Laging Handa'' virtual public briefing on Monday.

The House committee on energy approved an amendment of the Oil Deregulation Law on March.

"First of all, they have to see to it that they will also have to win their seats as congressmen or as senators," he said.

"We see that the priority right now is the election. After the election, we see that there will be new membership. So, their status will be transitory … But what is important now is already laid down on the table. And hopefully this will be addressed the soonest in the next Congress," he added.

However, Erguiza added the importance of reminding the next batch of legislators to include the amendment of the oil deregulation law in their agenda.

"But in the meantime, we voters, we have to remind our candidates, our …future next batches of legislators to include this matter within their energy agenda because it is important day-in, day-out. Since this oil price deregulation law was started it has affected us," he said. Robina Asido/DMS