THE Court of Appeals junked a plea filed by former president and now Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of Pampanga in connection with a P5.4-million damage suit pending before a Quezon City court against the former leader.

In a three-page resolution penned by Associate Justice Victoria Isabel Paredes and concurred in by Associate Justices Japar Dimaampao and Elihu Ybañez, the Court’s Fourteenth Division denied for lack of merit the application for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) and/or a writ of preliminary injunction filed by GMA.

“In reference to the prayer for the issuance of a TRO…we find no compelling reason for the grant of such extraordinary remedy/ies…” the ruling said.

While the TRO and injunction plea was denied the main case still remain pending.

The case stemmed from the complaint filed by the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) for the alleged extrajudicial killings of five Protestant church members and the alleged abduction of another one from 2003 to 2006.

The group impleaded GMA in her capacity as then president of the Republic and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The complaint stressed that numerous church pastors and church leaders were either been liquidated, harassed, unlawfully, detained or tortured with impunity, by military agents and operatives who, by law, were then all under the ultimate control and command responsibility of GMA.

Representing UCCP as general secretary, Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza joined with six UCCP families as plaintiffs against GMA for damages to the church and co-plaintiffs human rights violations victims.

The group said that GMA and the military agents for whom she was responsible must be held accountable for the injustice they have exacted on the Church and the Filipino people.

Arroyo’s camp sought the appellate court’s redress after the Quezon City Regional Trial Court denied its motion to dismiss and its motion for reconsideration.