Petron asks Supreme Court to nullify Manila RTC order to open books

MANILA, Philippines - Oil firm Petron Corp. has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to nullify the order issued by Manila Regional Trial Court Judge Silvino Pampilo Jr. to open its books of accounts, along with Pilipinas Shell Petroleum and Chevron Philippines, to state auditors.

In a 61-page petition for review, Petron, represented by lawyer Gener Asuncion, also asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order against Judge Pampilo’s order while the petition is being heard.

On April 27, 2009, Pampilo granted the motion filed by the Social Justice Society (SJS) to open and examine the books of accounts of the so called Big 3 oil firms on allegations of cartelization and predatory pricing, which are violations of the anti-trust safeguards of the Oil Deregulation Law of 1998.

Petron argued that Pampilo committed grave abuse of discretion when he denied its motion to dismiss the SJS petition after the Department of Justice-Department of Energy Joint Task Force – to which the complaint was first filed, as mandated by the law – had already ruled on April 17, 2008 that the Big 3 were not guilty of violating the anti-trust safeguards.

“Unless restrained by the issuance of a temporary restraining order and/or preliminary injunction, respondent Judge Pampilo will continue the otherwise void proceedings and require Petron, Shell and Chevron to open their books and allow inspection and audit by the COA (Commission on Audit), BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue), and BOC (Bureau of Customs) despite the glaring nullity and illegality of said orders rendering thereby this petition useless and judgment on the merits by the Honorable Supreme Court ineffectual,” Petron argued in the petition.

Early last month, the High Court issued a temporary restraining order against Pampilo’s directive on a petition filed by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), which argued that it would be beyond the mandate of the COA, BIR and BOC to examine the financial records of the oil firms.

The TRO stopped Pampilo from citing the heads of the three agencies in contempt for not complying with the directive. 

Petron maintained that under Section 13 of the Oil Deregulation Law, the duty to investigate oil companies for possible violation of anti-trust safeguards belongs exclusively to the DOJ-DOE Joint Task Force.

Section 13 also states that if the quasi-judicial body rules that there has been a violation of the law, the complainant can file a case in the regional trial court, which has jurisdiction over either the complainant or the defendant.

“The report of the DOJ-DOE Joint Task Force is an administrative adjudication, which is respected and given effect by courts. But, in arbitrary, despotic and whimsical manner, respondent Judge Pampilo took a sharp volte face when he disregarded the findings,” the firm said.

Petron said Pampilo should have just dismissed the SJS petition.

“Having recognized the DOJ-DOE Joint Task Force’s primary responsibility, was it not then proper to dismiss the SJS petition for lack of cause of action after the DOJ-DOE Joint Task Force investigated and found that there was no monopoly, combination in restraint of trade or cartelization committed by Petron, Shell and Chevron?” the petitioner asked. Chevron Philippines, through its lawyer Ariel Abonal, has filed a similar petition before the SC.