Philippine Energy Policy Wiki

EO 39 (s. 2017) — DOE Secretary as Ex Officio Chair of PNOC-EC and PNOC-RC Boards

Status
operative
Confidence
high
Effective date
2017-09-05

Full title: Mandating the Secretary of Energy to Sit as Ex Officio Chairman of the Board of Directors of PNOC Exploration Corporation and PNOC Renewables Corporation

Signed: September 5, 2017 | President: Rodrigo Roa Duterte

Context

RA 7638 (DOE Act of 1992) already made the DOE Secretary ex officio Chairman of the PNOC board, but was silent on PNOC’s subsidiaries. PNOC-EC (PNOC Exploration Corporation) is 99.79% owned by PNOC; PNOC-RC (PNOC Renewables Corporation) is wholly owned by PNOC. Both were incorporated separately under the Corporation Code.

RA 10149 (GOCC Governance Act of 2011) defines an ex officio board member as one who sits by virtue of another office, without separate appointment — removing the appointment burden while ensuring policy coordination [EO 39, s. 2017, WHEREAS ¶6, 2017-09-05].

RA 7638 prohibits the Secretary from being CEO/COO of PNOC subsidiaries, but does not prohibit the ex officio chairmanship [EO 39, s. 2017, WHEREAS ¶7, 2017-09-05].

Key Provisions

§1 — Ex officio chairmanship: The DOE Secretary shall sit as ex officio Chairman of the boards of directors of both PNOC-EC and PNOC-RC [EO 39, s. 2017, §1, 2017-09-05]. (Published-text defect: lawphil’s operative §1 sentence literally reads “ex officio Chairman of the board of directors of both the PNOC-RC” — PNOC-EC is dropped, leaving “both” without a second referent. Verified on the live lawphil.net page, so it is a transcription defect in the published Order, not a scrape artifact. The “both PNOC-EC and PNOC-RC” reading above is the unambiguous intent of the title, preamble, and the rest of §1, but the operative clause as published names only PNOC-RC.)

DOE, PNOC, PNOC-EC, and PNOC-RC directed to undertake necessary actions (including by-law amendments) to implement this Order [EO 39, s. 2017, §1, 2017-09-05].

Policy Notes

  • Strengthens DOE’s direct governance role over upstream petroleum (PNOC-EC) and renewable energy (PNOC-RC) operations — both are subsidiaries whose mandates closely align with DOE policy
  • PNOC-EC holds petroleum service contracts and is the primary government upstream petroleum operator (SC 38 non-operator share, other PSCs)
  • PNOC-RC (accredited ESCO) handles renewables commercial activities; later involved in offshore wind port infrastructure (ESB Mabini)
  • See Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) for full PNOC/PNOC-EC/PNOC-RC entity detail

Full text: Cleaned copy