Arrest of COA, BIR, Customs chiefs sought

By Tina Santos, Edson C. Tandoc Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—A lawyers’ group Wednesday asked a Manila court to order the arrest of the heads of the Commission on Audit (COA) and the customs and internal revenue bureaus for their continued disobedience of the court’s order to examine the account books of the Big 3 oil companies.

The Social Justice Society (SJS) asked Judge Silvino Pampilo Jr. to issue arrest warrants against the officials “for their deliberate, obstinate and contumacious refusal to obey the lawful order” of the court and to detain them until they comply with the order.

Pampilo earlier directed the heads of the agencies to explain within 72 hours why they should not be cited for contempt for failure to comply with his April 2009 order to open and examine the books of accounts of Chevron Philippines Inc., Petron Corp. and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp..

Gov’t counsel

The judge’s July 24 order was reportedly served and received on the same day by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), which is acting as the counsel for the government agencies.

The SJS said the 72-hour period expired last Tuesday.

Pampilo last April directed the COA, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to form a panel that would conduct the examination of cash receipts, cash disbursement books, purchase orders on petroleum products, delivery receipts, sales invoices and other related documents on the purchases of petroleum products of the three firms from January 2003 to December 2003.

The judge’s order stemmed from a complaint filed by the SJS, which accused the oil companies of using pricing schemes grossly disadvantageous to the public.

Last July 7, the judge denied for lack of merit separate motions for reconsideration seeking to stop his order filed by the OSG and the oil firms.

The judge ruled that there was no law or jurisprudence that prohibits government entities from performing acts that would best serve the public.

At a hearing of the energy committee at the House of Representatives Wednesday, Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo said the committee would summon the COA, the BIR and the BOC to update the committee on the progress of their audit of the oil companies as ordered by Pampilo.

“Auditing the oil firms is the only way we will find out if prices are really overpriced or not,” said Arroyo, the committee chair.

Saying they are willing to open their books for auditing, oil companies defended their prices as being fair and reasonable before the committee.

“We have always been transparent with our financial situation. We are open to public audits as long as it is by the right agency,” said Chevron spokesperson Mark Quebral.

Some of the oil companies claimed that they actually incurred millions of pesos in losses last year.

Shell spokesperson Robert Kanapi said that compared to other industries, oil companies have been generating smaller profits. While media companies, for instance, made 12.2 percent in profits last year, oil companies only made some 2.3 percent, he said.

Industry losers

Malou Espina, corporate affairs manager of Total Phil., said the company lost P570 million last year.

Zenaida Monsada, oil industry management bureau director for the Department of Energy, told the committee that four out of nine oil companies incurred net losses last year: Total, Caltex, Petron and Pryce.

Monsada said oil price increases in Metro Manila are lower than the increases in international market prices. She said the Philippines, an oil importer, has among the lowest oil prices in Southeast Asia, its rates just slightly higher than those of Indonesia and Malaysia which both produce and subsidize oil.

But George San Mateo, secretary general of the transport group Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operaytor Nationwide (Piston), said he doubted the claims that oil prices in the country are lower than international rates. He urged the committee to review the Oil Deregulation Law.

source

I believe there is no reason why COA and BIR heads should be arrested. They have not done anything wrong.