BAGUIO CITY — The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday scored the action of Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay, Jr. of not immediately vacating his post despite the implementation by the Office of the Ombudsman (Ombudsman) of the preventive suspension it issued against him.
The SC said that such action of Binay is also considered as “contemptuous act” and disobedience to the order of the court.
Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes scored the camp of Binay during the oral arguments.
Reyes noted that Binay filed the contempt charges against the Ombudsman, Philippine National Police (PNP), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II and Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila M. De Lima also because of their alleged non-compliance of the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Court of Appeals (CA).
Because of this, Reyes said, it would seem that Binay should also be charged with contempt when he did not comply with the order of the Ombudsman for him to vacate his post in the morning of March 16, 2015 when the preventive suspension has already been served and Makati City Vice Mayor Romulo Pena already took oath as acting mayor.
Atty. Claro Certeza, counsel of Binay, said that his client’s not vacating his post was because they have a pending petition before the CA seeking for the issuance of a TRO against the suspension order of the Ombudsman.
Because of the answer of Certeza, Reyes said that the action of Binay of not following the preventive suspension in the morning of March 16, 2015 was also because they were expecting for the issuance of the TRO.
“Is his (Binay) action because of the anticipation of a TRO,” Reyes said.
Hours after the preventive suspension on Binay was served, the CA immediately issued a TRO at about 1 p.m. also on March 16, 2015.
The said TRO was issued by the CA Sixth Division, as well as the writ of preliminary injunction were being questioned because of the accusation of Senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV that the magistrates handling the petition, namely Associate Justices Francisco Acosta and Justice Jose Reyes, Jr. allegedly received the amount of Php25 million each to grant the petition of Binay.
The TRO and writ of preliminary injunction paved the way for Binay to stay in his post.