The Department of Energy (DOE) has signed five of 11 coal contracts under the Philippine Energy Contracting Round 4 (PECR4), which will let investors acquire and develop coal power sites that the agency has offered.

Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla told reporters on Wednesday that the reason why the signing of contracts is taking so long is he has to look over the documents page by page.

“I won’t allow one page signing. I sign each page,” he said.

All the coal contracts will be signed within this week, Petilla added.

“We’re giving it to them [investors] as I sign it. I’m not sure kung nabigay na nila [if these were given to the investors] but I have certainly given instruction to give it to them already,” he noted.

For the petroleum contracts, DOE will have to send the documents to Malacanang and wait for a decision.

“I’ve signed the endorsement papers to Malacanang. More or less, there are 11 oil contracts,” Petilla
said.

In November, the DOE said that it is hoping to conduct the PECR4 by the end of 2012.

 DOE Undersecretary Ramon Allan Oca previously told reporters that they were hoping to bring the contracts out by December, since the department has finished the evaluation phase.

“We want to make sure that when we award these things, it’s given to the really most qualified and that we want to ensure that the process is something fair,” he said.