(Update) Court orders ‘Big 3’ to open books for auditing

MANILA, Philippines - The Manila Regional Trial Court on Monday gave the go signal for the government to scrutinize and audit the account books of the three major oil companies to establish if they are involved in monopoly, predatory pricing or cartelization. In a three-page order, Judge Silvino Pampilo of the Manila RTC Branch 26 granted the petition of party-list group Social Justice System seeking to compel Petron, Shell and Chevron to open up their books for examination and auditing. “Since 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, there is a need to open and examine the books of account of the respondents," Pampilo said. Pampilo directed the Commission on Audit (COA), the Bureau of Internal and Revenue (BIR), and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to form a panel of examiners for the auditing. Covered by the examination were the oil firms’ cash receipts, cash disbursement books, purchase orders on petroleum products, delivery receipts, sales invoices and other related documents on the purchases of petroleum products from the period of January 2003 to December 2003. Pampilo said that since the SJS petition only covered only the examination of year 2003 records of the oil companies, he had asked the petitioner to file a motion to include the examination the books of the oil firms books in succeeding years. The three companies, meanwhile, refused to comment on the order, saying they are yet to see the document. “We cannot comment as we have not yet received a copy of the decision," said Shell media relations manager Mitch Cruz in a text message to GMANews.TV. Petron public affairs officer Rafael Ledesma expressed the same view. Chevron's corporate communication head Antonio Nebrida said they cannot comment on it until they "see and review the decision." In the same court order, Pampilo chided the Department of Energy (DoE) for expressing “through mass media" moves to open and examine the books of account of the big 3 oil companies. “For reasons unknown to many, the books have remained unopened and unexamined, and the puzzle remains unsolved," he said. SJS had earlier alleged that the respondent oil companies had violated the laws against monopolies and combinations in restraint of trade. Group spokesman Vladimir Cabigao, who had similarly succeeded in filing a suit for the removal of the oil terminals in the Pandacan depot, welcomed the court’s order. “We 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. - with Aie Balagtas See, GMANews.TV