Mighty loses bid to have Manila RTC stop Pampanga warehouse raids

Cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corp. has lost its bid to have the Manila Regional Trial Court stop the Bureau of Customs from conducting raids in its warehouse of Pampanga.

In a resolution dated March 23, Judge Noli C. Diaz said the Manila RTC, where Mighty filed its petition, had no territorial jurisdiction over the case.

Diaz, who presides over Branch 39 of the Manila RTC, thus dismissed Mighty’s petition.

Mighty wants the BOC to stop the implementation of the mission order issued by Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon, which authorized raids in the company’s warehouse at the San Simon Industrial Park on Quezon Road in San Simon, Pampanga.

The mission order authorized customs agents only to inspect the warehouse for smuggled goods. The BOC found no smuggled products there.

Then, agents from the Bureau of Internal Revenue also conducted a raid on the warehouse, even if it was not part of the mission order.

Earliler, Judge Tita Alisuag of Manila RTC Branch 1 issued a restraining order against the BOC, which in effect stopped the agency from inspecting the warehouse.

The BOC then filed an administrative case against Alisuag, which prompted her to inhibit herself from the case.

The case was re-raffled to Judge Diaz, who said that the Manila RTC was “limited to acts committed or to be committed within its territorial jurisdiction.”

“Since the acts complained of sought to be enjoined by the complainant is in San Simon, Pampanga, this Court has no authority to issue such order,” Diaz said.

The Manila RTC, he pointed out, could issue writs of preliminary injunction only within the National Capital Region.

He added that Mighty should have also observed the doctrine of exhaustion of administrative remedies by going first to the Department of Finance (DOF) to question BOC mission order instead of going straight to the court.

In his resolution, Diaz said: “Courts cannot or will not determine a controversy involving a question which is within the jurisdiction of the administrative tribunal…where the question demands the exercise of sound administrative discretion requiring the special knowledge, experience and services of the administrative tribunal to determine technical and intricate matters of fact.”

In this case, Diaz said the mission order issued by the BOC could still be reviewed by the DOF, which BOC is a part of. /atm