MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang has welcomed Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp.'s petition before a local court to stop the executive department from implementing Executive Order 839 putting a cap on fuel prices.

"That is the right of Shell under the law to seek redress for imagined grievances as it is also the right of the people to complain against what they feel as opportunistic tendencies of these big oil companies as it is the responsibility of the government to protect the interest of the greater number of people,'' Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said over government-run dzRB Saturday.

Shell, in its petition for prohibition, mandamus, and injunction, asked the Makati regional trial court to issue a temporary restraining order against the continued implementation of the EO on grounds that it was unconstitutional.

It named as respondents Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, representing the Department of Energy-Department of Justice (DoE-DoJ) joint task force implementing the order.

On October 24, Malacañang issued EO 839 freezing oil prices at October 15 levels, as a means of mitigating the effects of a succession of typhoons that last month devastated parts of Luzon which remain under a state of calamity.

The oil industry, supported by big business groups, has strongly opposed the EO and called for its lifting, arguing that oil companies have been incurring losses because of the huge gap “between the cost and the pump price.”

Roberto S. Kanapi, Shell vice president for communications, claimed the EO did not meet the conditions prescribed in the Constitution for determining the exceptional circumstances that would warrant the Chief Executive’s exercise of emergency powers.