MANILA, Philippines - A lawyers’ group head said Thursday that they will charge a Manila court judge for grave abuse of discretion before the Court of Appeals for a decision allowing big oil companies to raise pump prices on a weekly basis.

Lawyer Vladimir Cabigao, head of the Social Justice Society (SJS), said they will include the charge against Judge Silvino Pampilo Jr. of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 26 in their petition for certiorari that will be filed before the appellate court.

Cabigao said the group is still waiting to get a copy of Pampilo's resolution, which denied their motion for consideration on the oil prices issue.

The group earlier sought the reversal of a ruling that rejected SJS's petition to stop Pilipinas Shell, Petron Corporation and Chevron Philippines Inc. (formerly Caltex) from raising pump prices weekly.

In a two-page order dated March 5, Pampilo reaffirmed his rejection of a petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) seeking to stop the oil companies from increasing pump prices weekly.

Cabigao said Pampilo's order contradicted his earlier resolution, granting their group's motion to open the books of the oil companies.

Cabigao explained that the motion to open the books was based on the resolution of the Department of Energy-Department of Justice joint task force on energy, which absolved oil companies from monopolization, cartelization, overpricing of oil products and price fixing.

He said the joint task force's resolution said it was hard to determine if the oil companies were engaged in monopolization, cartelization and overpricing because the topic was "too technical."

"When the court granted the motion to open the book, [it means] the court believes that the [the oil companies are engaged in] overpricing," the lawyer said, adding that Pampilo would not have granted the initial motion if he did not believe the allegation of the SJS.