By Michael Caber

A civil society group has asked a Manila court to look into the books of account of the top three oil companies to determine if they formed a cartel and practiced predatory pricing in violation of the deregulation law.

In open court, Social Justice System lawyer Valdimir Alarique Cabigao sought the examination of the transactions of Chevron Philippines Inc., Petron Corp. and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. even if the Justice-Energy inter-department task force had found no monopoly involved while admitting the difficulty in determining whether a player was imposing an unreasonable price for its products.

But Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, in a memorandum released on Feb. 17, ordered his Undersecretary Jose Vicente Salazar, co-chairman of the task force, to investigate complaints of violation of Sections 11 and 12 of RA 8479?the same sections that prohibit cartelization, price fixing and predatory pricing in the oil sector.

In asking Judge Silvino Pampilo Jr. of Regional Trial Court Branch 26 for the examination, Cabigao bucked the task force?s findings.

?We do not believe the report. That?s why we are moving for the examination of the books of the oil companies by the Commission on Audit, Bureau of Customs and Bureau of Internal Revenue,? he told reporters after the hearing.

?We believe there?s cartel. There?s an overt act of manipulating the prices whenever one oil company would raise the price, the other two would follow. So, the only way to determine whether or not there is really no cartel is to examine the books,? noted Cabigao.

Pampilo said the joint task force furnished his court a nine-page report noting ?no clear proof that will lead to a conclusion that the three oil companies?Petron, Shell and Caltex?committed monopolies or cartelization in trade.?