MANILA, Philippines - After failing to get a favorable ruling from the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA), Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. managed to secure a 3-day temporary restraining order from the Batangas City regional trial court barring the Bureau of Customs (BOC) from seizing its imported raw materials.

In a 5-page order signed by executive judge Ruben Galvez, the court said BOC personnel are barred from entering Shell's refinery in Batangas to hold, seize, confiscate, and forcibly take possession of Shell's import shipments.

According to Galvez, Shell may be forced to shut down its refinery once the imports are seized since the company will no longer have raw materials needed to produce fuel products.

With no more products to sell, he said Shell's 959 retail dealer stations will eventually close down, while 823 refinery workers will lose their jobs.

"The court finds valid grounds to grant the prayer for the issuance of ex-parte temporary restraining order for 72 hours," Galvez said.

Customs officials failed to confiscate Shell's imported raw materials in Batangas on Wednesday as managers of the oil firm's refinery refused to accept the former's seizure order.

Arnel Santos, general manager of Shell's refinery in Batangas, told ABS-CBN News that the BOC's seizure order was immature since the CTA is still hearing their case.

Shell has been disputing BOC's P7.34-billion tax assessment on the company's imports of catalytic cracked gasoline (CCG) and light CCG from 2004 to 2009. It explained that the imports are just raw materials for the production of unleaded gasoline for which duties have been paid for.

The BOC had accused the oil firm of misdeclaring the goods, demanding the payment of excise taxes levied on finished products intended for domestic consumption.

The CTA earlier issued a 60-day TRO barring the BOC from seizing some P43 billion worth of Shell's imports to pay for P7.34 billion in so-called back taxes.

But the said TRO lapsed on Tuesday, the same day the CTA denied Shell's motion for injunction. (Read: Tax court gives go-signal to seize Shell's P43-B imports)