THE Trade Department and not the Energy Department should be regulating the cooking gas sector to make sure supplies are adequate, a consumer advocate said yesterday.

?[Our group] is urgently recommending that the cooking gas be included in the list of basic commodities under the Price Act of 1992,? said Raul Concepcion, chairman of the private Consumer and Oil Price Watch group.

?The Trade Department, by authority of [that law], must be the government agency to regulate LPG,? Concepcion said.

He said the Trade Department had the power to automatically freeze commodity prices in an emergency and to impose a price ceiling when necessary.

?[Our group] recommends that all the provisions in the proposed bill on cooking gas pending in the House be submitted to the Trade Department so that it can be incorporated in the Price Act,? Concepcion said.

Consumers have been complaining of a shortage in the supply of liquefied petroleum gas. Some blame the Energy Department for its alleged inability to solve the problem.

Last week, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said hoarders were responsible for the shortage of cooking gas in the market. Alena Mae S. Flores and Roderick T. dela Cruz