THE PUBLIC’s trust in President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd should be enough reason why any earnest move to amend the Constitution now would not suffer the fate of previous initiatives. Before, talks of Charter change were immediately shot down by suspicions that Cha-cha was only a ruse to extend the tenure of the President and proponents. Now, who would ever dare suspect the President of harboring such an intention?
Recently, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile resurrected his call for Cha-cha but with a difference — he is no longer pushing for a shift to a parliamentary-federal government. Rather, he wants Cha-cha to focus only on the Charter’s economic provisions. He joins Sen. Edgardo J. Angara who has been pressing for the amendment or repeal of the Charter provisions that keep the Philippines a closed economy and those on the automatic payment or debts and the automatic reenactment of the previous budget.
Last week, Chief Justice Renato Corona also expressed support for proposals to amend the economic provisions of the Constitution. Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments, might be prophetic when she said amendments could start in 2013.
CJ Corona now joins the list of jurists and eminent lawyers who are for Cha-cha. Among them are former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, former Supreme Court Justices Florentino Feliciano and Vicente Mendoza, former UP president Jose Abueva, and former UP Law Dean Merlin Magallona.
Actually, CJ Corona went beyond expressing support for amending the Charter’s economic provisions. He also vowed to enforce judicial reforms in the High Tribunal that would be responsive to the needs of society and local and foreign investors.
But while the CJ was making that avowal, a Court of Appeals associate justice is being questioned for the “indecent haste” with which he issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) in favor of five insurance companies that were earlier ordered by a Batangas Regional Trial Court judge to pay $41 million in fire damages to the Steel Corporation of the Philippines (SCP).
Hasty TRO questioned
The questioned TRO was issued by Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier and concurred in by Justices Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Sisenando Villon, Jr. of the CA’s Special Fifth Division in connection with an appeal lodged by the five insurance companies for the unfavorable decision issued by Judge Ruben Galvez, presiding judge of Batangas RTC Branch 3.
The five insurance companies, namely: Mapfre Insular Insurance Corp., New India Assurance Co. Ltd., Philippine Charter Insurance Corp., Malayan Insurance Co. Inc., and Asia Insurance Phil. Corp. have been haled to court by the SCP after they refused to pay its claims amounting to $41 million.
The Batangas RTC decision dated June 1, 2011 ordered the said insurance firms to either pay SCP the total amount of $41 million for business interruption and property damage claims or to replace/reinstate the damaged Cold Rolling Mill machineries and equipment covered by insurance policies issued by them.
Now, SCP has filed a motion with the appellate court asking for the disqualification of the Special Fifth Division for the “hasty and irregular issuance of the TRO,” which SCP said was tantamount to an injunction issued without due process.
SCP’s lawyers noted that on June 7, 2011, the five insurers filed with the CA’s Special Fifth Division a petition consisting of 79 pages and five thick volumes of annexes dated June 6, 2011. On June 9, a copy of the petition was sent to SCP lawyers, On June 10, a Friday, the CA issued the questioned TRO which was served on SCP on June 13..
“Based on the circumstances and dates, it was physically impossible for SCP to be notified of any summary hearing and it was also physically impossible for the CA to go through the 6-volume petition and then order the issuance of the TRO in the span of a single day,” SCP lawyers said.
They said these circumstances show the “undue haste” in the issuance of the TRO and may be an example of what the Supreme Court has defined as undue interest.”
They regarded as “speculative and unworthy of belief” the CA’s reasoning in issuing the TRO “that the insurance companies have a clear and positive right especially calling for judicial protection, which if not granted, will cause them grave and irreparable injury in terms of frozen bank accounts, halted business operations and eventual business closure.”
Indeed, how can the insurance companies be in danger of closing shop when under the Insurance Code, they could not retain any risk on anyone subject of insurance in an amount exceeding 20 percent of its net worth? In short, they are supposed to spread the risk through reinsurance.
Instead, it is the SCP that will suffer grave and irreparable damage with the issuance of the TRO or injunction and the resulting delay in the settlement of its claims. Being under corporate rehabilitation, its restoration to normal business operations and former position of financial health largely depends on the immediate replacement of its cold rolling mill, the latter being an essential part of its core manufacturing operations.
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