LINGAYEN - In a long drawn preliminary injunction hearing, Regional Trial Court Judge Caridad Villegas-Galvez said she will finally issue the decision on the case filed by Governor Amado T. Espino against the Provincial Police Director Sr. Supt. Marlou Chan and company on November 12 this year.
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| The controversial Pangasinan acting provincial director Colonel Marlou Chan (L) during the relief operation of Typhoon Maring. |
State Solicitor Magnolia C. Velez of the Solicitor General Office said the court should decide the case against Chan, Chief Superintendent Ricardo Marquez, and Director Catalino Cuy, chief of the PNP Personnel and Records at Camp Crame because the Writ of Injunction case filed by Espino on stopping the appointment of Chan as permanent provincial director in May 10 this year became passé’ after the Philippine National Police revoked it last June 26.
Chan was ordered instead to head the provincial police on holdover capacity.
Chan's lawyer to file supplemental motion to dismiss
"I will file the supplemental motion to dismiss. This case is moot and academic,” Velez told Judge Galvez.
Velez had a tense argument with Espino’s lawyer, Provincial Legal Officer Geraldine Baniqued who retorted to her: “You file and we will answer!”
Baniqued earlier told the court that the PNP has been giving his client a run-around after respondents told the court in July that three nominees have been selected by the PNP’s Senior Officers Placement and Promotion Board (SOPPB) from the 13 applicants for the top police post in Pangasinan.
Three Police Nominees for Pangasinan Police Director's post
Marquez told this paper earlier that the three nominees were Senior Superintendents Mariel M. Magaway, Ferdinand Divina, and Valerio de Leon. Magaway, a native of Dupax del Sur, Nueva Vizcaya is the chief of Counter Intelligence and Security Division of the PNP in Camp Crame. Divina , who hails from Tayug, Pangasinan, is the former Region-1 chief of the Criminal Investigation Detection Group and incumbent chief of the Cybercrime Operations and Training Division of PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group in Camp Crame. De Leon used to be the provincial director of Quezon.
General Marquez went to Manila to check status of Nominees
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| Governor Amado T. Espino (extreme left) with Senator Peter Cayetano and Pangasinan Congressman Pol Bataoil. |
Chan , who was not accompanied in the court hearing last September 5 by Cuy and Marquez, said Marquez was on his way to Camp Crame to check the progress of the nomination for the provincial director at the National Police Commission (Napolcom).
Napolcom is headed by Department of Interior & Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas - a known political nemesis of the governor.
Chan expects his relief since last month but...
Chan told the court that since last month he was expecting his relief as provincial director and transfer as deputy director for administration at the regional police office in San Fernando City, La Union.
But he said the post was recently filled up.
He continued that another position at the regional office would be vacant in December.
Espino should have sued Secretary Roxas for undue delays
A legal source at the RTC said that the pending case against the respondents has been beyond the control of the judge. “They (respondents) appear compliant. The Philippine National Police withdrew the appointment of Chan from permanent to acting capacity. (The PNP) appointed the three nominees and submit them to the DILG.
The source said the applicant (Governor Espino) should have sued Secretary Roxas because he procrastinates in the submission of the three nominees to Chief Superintendent Marquez where Espino could choose his fair- haired boy as mandated by law.
Judge gave lawyers of litigants 10 days each to file motions.
Judge Galvez set the next hearing on November 12 after lawyer Velez manifested to her that 10 days after receipt of notice she and lawyer Attorney Maria Celeste Reantaso and PNP lawyers Police Superintendent Donald T. Laoyan and Police Chief Inspector Stephen G. Budong will file their supplemental motion to dismiss.
Baniqued has been given 10 days to answer the motion.
“We already filed the motion to dismiss in July, we have just additional motion through the supplemental motion," Solicitor General Office lawyer Velez said.
Judge Galvez said she hoped that on November 12 there would be a dismissal or withdrawal of the case by Espino (in case he would have selected the new provincial director).
An interim rules from the Supreme Court said that an application for preliminary injunction was made, may issue a restraining order to be effective only for a period of twenty days from date of its issuance. Within the said twenty-day period, the court must cause an order to be served on the defendant, requiring hims to show cause, at a specified time and place, why the injunction should not be granted, and determine within the same period whether or not the preliminary injunction shall be granted and shall accordingly issue the corresponding order.
Governor Espino sued Chan et.al in May 24 this year at Branch 69 of the Regional Trial Court here.
Espino and Chan lawyers locked horns even on calamity works
Meanwhile, the counsels of both parties did not only exchange verbal tussles on the replacement of Chan but disputed heatedly on the rap of the governor that Chan did not cooperate with the provincial government in the disaster work during the scourge of Typhoon Maring that brought floods to many towns and cities in the province.
“The police rank and file does not know whom to turn to,” Baniqued told the court.
Lawyer Velez rebutted Baniqued that the provincial police volunteered to help during the calamity “but they were turned away (by provincial officials)”.
Chan told Baniqued that his officers sent and replied to communications to and from retired army colonel Fernando de Guzman, officer-in-charge of Pangasinan Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council during relief operations.
" I have done what a provincial director should have done in calamity works,” he said.
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