JUSTICE Secretary Leila de Lima on Wednesday cautioned justices of the Court of Appeals (CA) from issuing further orders that would negate the suspension of Makati Mayor Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr. without first conducting a hearing.
In an interview with reporters, de Lima insisted that the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the CA Sixth Division on March 16, 2014, can no longer be implemented for being moot and academic since the six-month preventive suspension order had been served by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) before the TRO was issued.
De Lima shared the same opinion with Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, a former Supreme Court associate justice, who stressed that the TRO has become moot as there is no more act to be restrained. “So, the status quo that the TRO sought to preserve was the vice mayor took his oath of office. That is the status quo, that is the situation right now,” she said.
But while de Lima admitted that the camp of Binay may avail before the CA of other legal remedies, she insisted the appellate cannot issue any order that would allow the the son of Vice President Jejomar C. Binay to reassume his post without setting the matter for a hearing first.
“I don’t want to say what legal remedies they can avail of, although in my letter I said they should go back to the Court of Appeals and secure the proper order. But any order now that must come out of the Court of Apeals has to be first heard or set for hearing and should not be an ex parte,” de Lima added.
“So any other order na hingin ng petitioner at puwedeng ibigay ng CA kung maniniwala silang may basehan cannot be just issued without hearing both sides particularly respondents through the Solgen [solicitor general],” she added.
In her legal opinion issued on Tuesday, de Lima explained that the TRO issued in favor of Binay “is without legal force and effect because it is already moot and academic, the acts sought to be restrained having already been performed and accomplished.”
“Whether the TRO seeks to restrain the issuance by the Ombudsman of the assailed joint order, or its implementation by the DILG, the same is already moot and academic, simply because before they were restrained, the Ombudsman had already issued the joint order and the DILG had already implemented the suspension of Mayor Binay,” she added.
source: Business Mirror
