WHEREAS, Republic Act No. 8479 otherwise known as the "Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998", applies to all person or entities engaged in any and all activities of the domestic downstream oil industry and mandates the Department of Energy to ensure a truly competitive market under a regime of fair prices, adequate and continuous supply of environmentally-clean and high quality petroleum products;

WHEREAS, Section 14 of RA 8479 empowers the DOE and DOE Secretary to monitor the quality of petroleum products and stop the operation of businesses involved in the sale of petroleum products which do not comply with the national standards of quality that are aligned with the national standards/protocols of quality;