De Lima brushes aside contempt case filed by Binay

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday expressed confidence that her contempt case filed by embattled Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay will not prosper before the Court of Appeals (CA), especially since her opinion on the restraining order issued by the appellate court is just a mere guidance.

De Lima made this statement as the CA gave her three days to submit her comment on Binay’s petition. This, after it was found that she was not served with the court’s March 20 order for her to submit her position prior to the conduct of the oral arguments on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters, de Lima insisted that a contempt case is not necessary because her legal opinion that the temporary restraining order issued by the CA against Mayor Binay’s suspension is moot and academic is “never binding.”

“I do not understand why is there a need to cite us in contempt of court especially on my part. The DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) only asked for my guidance because they were faced with a serious situation where there are two people acting as mayors [of Makati],” de Lima said.

De Lima, together with Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, DILG Secretary Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas II and several other police officers were slapped with a contempt case for refusing to follow the restraining order issued by the appellate court.

The Court of Appeals issued a restraining order against the implementation of the six months suspension of Mayor Binay.

The government officials said the TRO is already moot and academic because the suspension order has been served against Binay and Makati Vice Mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña already took his oath as acting mayor.