The DILG is Courting Contempt

    The DILG is courting contempt when its undersecretary Wencelito Andanar said that the TRO issued by the Court of Appeals an hour ago against the preventive suspension of  Makati mayor Jejomar Binay is of no consequence as to them since according to Andanar they had already served the notice of suspension. He said the CA has to issue a mandatory preliminary injunction to set aside the preventive suspension.     

     A TRO is a temporary prohibition (in this case, for 60 days). When a law, resolution, order, is issued by a government agency or any entity; and a party thinks that he/she has a clear, legal right that’s being violated by said law, resolution, order, he/ she files a petition for certiorari and prohibition with a prayer for a preliminary injunction and TRO. (the short cut of that when you’re writing a news story is, it’s an injunction case). Prohibition. It means to stop.     

     The opposite of that is a petitition for certiorari and mandamus with a prayer for a preliminary mandatory injunction (what Andanar was talking about). The tip I give my students so they would remember this is: what is the root word of mandamus? It’s Latin. I tell my students some of these Latin words have Tagalog counterparts. I think; I’m no  authority on the Tagalog words, I just think;  litis pendentia means pending litigation. In Tagalog, we have a word: “paglilitis” which means hearing or litigation, it’s similar, right? So, mandamus, for my students, I tell them it’s similar to “imando mo sila” which means “utusan mo sila” or “brasuhin mo” “to armtwist them”, “imando mo”,  to order them; it’s similar, right? So that’s how my students become unafraid of legalese and remember the concepts.    

     So, here, a temporary prohibition was issued by the CA. The CA has temporarily prohibited the DILG and concerned parties from,  (quote) “implementing and enforcing the preventive suspension order” for 60 days.     It means the DILG and other concerned government agencies are ordered to stop the enforcement of the order, to cease, to desist, from further doing the suspending.     

     A mandatory injunction, or mandamus, is the opposite of that; it means they should do something or begin to do something. For example, if a party has complied with all the requirements for the issuance of a permit or license that he/she is entitled to, and the government agency, for no reason at all, refuses to release any license, permit, or property, that the party is entitled to by right, a mandamus would lie. To order the government agency to do something.

         Even a student knows that; and here the DILG is showing an astounding degree of lawlessness.

            It thinks it is the law.