CA overturns lower court ruling favoring PUP president

The Court of Appeals has overturned the order of a Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) allowing outgoing Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) president Dante Guevarra to keep his post indefinitely.

In a 15-page decision, the appellate court said Manila RTC Branch 26 Judge Silvino Pampilo committed grave abuse of discretion when he issued a writ of preliminary injunction on July 25, which prevented the PUP Board of Regents (BOR) from installing Edicio de la Torre as Guevarra’s replacement.

“The RTC practically supplanted the authority of the PUP-BOR and arrogated unto itself the discretion granted to the board to appoint [an] OIC (officer in charge),” the ruling said in part.

It added: “The injunctive relief is lifted.”

The decision was authored by Associate Justice Mario Lopez with the concurrence of Associate Justices Ramon Bato Jr. and Soccoro Inting.

The court clarified that its finding of grave abuse of discretion on the part of Pampilo was only “confined to the propriety of the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction.”

It said Pampilo “committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction in issuing the writ… despite Guevarra’s failure to show a clear and unmistakable right to his position.”

However, it did not pass judgment on whether the PUP-BOR violated Republic Act 8292, or the Higher Education Modernization Act, and its implementing rules and regulations when it decided to replace Guevarra.

Instead, the appellate court directed the lower court to “resolve the issue with dispatch.”

The PUP-BOR approved a board resolution replacing Guevarra on July 4, a day before his four-year term was supposed to end.

But Manila RTC Executive Judge Amor Reyes Reyes issued a 72-hour temporary restraining order that allowed Guevarra’s stay in his office. Pampilo extended it to 17 days before he issued the writ of preliminary injunction.