SC requires lower court justices, judges to submit copies of orders, issuances
MANILA, Philippines — Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta has ordered justices of the Court of Appeals, Sandiganbayan, and Court of Tax Appeals as well as trial court judges to resume the submission to his office copies of temporary restraining orders (TROs) and other court orders five days from issuance.
A press release from the court stated that starting March 1, justices and judges are again required to submit copies of their TROs, status quo ante orders (SQAs), and writs of preliminary injunction (WPIs) which they issued within five days of issuance, pursuant to Administrative Order No. 63-2020.
Under the administrative order, Peralta also also required lower court justices and judges to submit to the Office of the Court Administrator all the TROs, SQA, and WPIs they had issued, copies of which may either be emailed or sent through postal mail addressed to the Office of the Chief Justice (OCJ).
The submission of reports on TROs and WPIs was discontinued as it has already been included in the monthly report of cases pursuant to Office of the Court Administrator Circular No. 246-2018.
These monthly reports, however, did not reflect the qualitative details of the TROs and WPIs.
In his order, Peralta cited the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence in Fortune Life Insurance Co., Inc. v. Luczon, Jr. which stated that “[i]njunction is an extraordinary remedy to be resorted to when there is a pressing necessity to avoid injurious consequences that cannot be remedied under any standard compensation.”
“A court may issue an injunction only if it is fully convinced of its extreme necessity and after it has complied with the procedural requirements set by law,” it added.
Peralta also reiterated the court’s ruling in BPI v. Hontanosas, Jr. that “[e]very court should remember that an injunction should not be granted lightly or precipitately because it is a limitation upon the freedom of the defendant’s action. It should be granted only when the court is fully satisfied that the law permits it and the emergency demands it, for no power exists whose exercise is more delicate, which requires greater caution and deliberation, or is more dangerous in a doubtful case, than the issuance of an injunction.”
