Court orders 'Big 3' oil firms to open books

MANILA, Philippines – A Manila court granted yesterday a civil society group’s request for the country’s three largest oil firms – Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Chevron Corp., and Petron Corp. – to open their books of accounts for examination by the government to determine if they are guilty of monopoly, predatory pricing or cartelization.

“There is a strong public interest involved and considering that there is a need to uncover the mystery surrounding the frequent increase in petroleum products,” Manila City Regional Trial Court Judge Silvino Pampilo Jr. said as he released the three-page order at 8 a.m. yesterday.

Malacañang welcomed the ruling, with Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo saying the Palace is hopeful that the court will strike a balance between ensuring free market competition in the oil industry and protecting consumer welfare.

Pampilo ordered the Commission on Audit (COA), Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), and Bureau of Customs (BOC) “to open and examine the cash receipts, cash disbursement books, the purchase orders on the petroleum products, delivery receipts, sales invoices and other related documents on the purchases of the petroleum products” from January to December 2003.

“The three government agencies are hereby ordered to take necessary actions to comply with the order of this court,” Pampilo said, adding that the three agencies will be furnished with a copy of the order.

He said he will issue a separate order giving the COA, BIR and the BOC three months to form panels of examiners.

“The three panels would have to conduct an examination on the books and to submit their reports within three months to determine if there was monopoly or cartel in the prices of oil. In the event that there would be discrepancies in their findings, I would call the three panels to a conference so they could explain,” Pampilo said. 

He also clarified that while the case is still pending in court, the oil firms would still be able to increase their prices since there is an Oil Deregulation Law.

Vladimir Cabigao, representing the Social Justice Society (SJS), which filed the petition, said they “are happy with the court’s order.”

“Once the court has determined that there has been cartelization and oil price manipulation of oil companies and that there are grounds to refund, and they fail to refund then we would file criminal prosecution for estafa against those responsible corporate officers who manipulated and cooked the books of the oil companies,” he said.

Cabigao alleged that “the oil companies just make it appear that they are recovering from cost of the petroleum products when in fact they make huge profits.”

He added that they are also planning to file a subpoena for the National Economic and Development Authority to submit its report showing that the price of gasoline is overpriced by P8. They will also seek to have NEDA director general Ralph Recto to testify on the matter in court.

However, since the SJS’ petition only covered 2003, Pampilo said he asked the SJS to request in writing that the oil firms’ books of accounts for the succeeding years be examined as well. – With Paolo Romero