Jul. 17-- President Gloria Arroyo's son,Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo of Pampanga, on Thursday asked government officials to begin with the examination of the books of accounts of the so-called Big 3 oil companies to determine if they were a cartel engaged in price manipulation.

According to Rep. Arroyo, the chairman of the House Committee on Energy, there was no more legal impediment for the three government agencies to go ahead and start opening the oil players' account books. He cited a lower court junking motions for reconsideration filed by Chevron, Petron and Shell in relation to the court order allowing the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Commission on Audit (COA) to scrutinize and audit their books of account.

Judge Silvino Pampilo of Branch 26 of the Regional Trial Court of Manila dismissed the motions made by the Big 3 oil companies and granted a petition of party-list group Social Justice System seeking to compel Chevron, Petron and Shell and Chevron to open up their books for examination and auditing.

"The ball is in the hands of these three government agencies. The BIR, the BOC and the COA can now start examining the books of account of the Big 3 and determine once and for all if they are really involved in predatory pricing and cartelization as based on the mysterious pricing scheme these three companies employ," Rep. Arroyo said.

Solicitor General

The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) suffered a defeat in defending the oil companies.

Pampilo dismissed all motions and ordered BIR, BOC and COA to form a joint panel that would examine the three firms' books, including 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 January 2003 to December 2003.

"It is not a crime to make profits, but when three different companies which are supposed to be competitors collude with each other and resort to predatory pricing and cartelization, it is very wrong," Rep. Arroyo said. "And if you do make profits and try to hide it from the government by not declaring your exact income and therefore not paying the right taxes, it is also very wrong."

Fourth member

An alleged protector of the Big 3 was charged before the Office of the Ombudsman for his alleged neglect of duty in maintaining the stability of oil prices.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes' alleged "inaction conveys the impression that he is a protector of the Big 3," lawyer Vladimir Alarique Cabigao said also on Thursday in his complaint-affidavit before the Ombudsman.

Cabigao tagged Reyes as the "fourth member of the Big 3."

Ombudsman Maria Merceditas Gutierrez was asked by the complainant to order the preventive suspension of Reyes pending investigation of an administrative case against the Energy secretary.

The case stemmed from Reyes' alleged neglect of duty by not implementing Republic Act 8479 in relation to the Department of Energy Act of 1992, which says his primary duty is to regulate private-sector activities, including those in the oil industry.

According to the law, that the maintenance of a periodic schedule of present and future total industry inventory of petroleum products for determining the level of supply is one such means of regulating such activities.

-----

To see more of The Manila Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.manilatimes.net.

Copyright (c) 2009, The Manila Times, Philippines

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NYSE:CVX, Philippines:PCOR,

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.