Junjun Problemado

Court of Appeals has junked the petition of former Makati City Mayor Junjun Binay, that questioned his second preventive suspension  by the Office of the Ombudsman over an allegedly anomalous 10-storey building at the Makati Science High School.

In a 3-page resolution, the appellate court said Binay's petition against the Ombudsman and the DILG has been rendered moot by his recent dismissal from the service over another allegedly anomalous project, the Makati City Hall Building 2.

Ombudsman Carpio-Morales and her 103-page joint decision pertaining to 6 other similar complaints against Junjun Binay involving alleged anomalies in the construction of the Makati car park ordered petitioner's dismissal as Makati Mayor with perpetual disqualification from holding public office.

"This court takes judicial notice of the foregoing issuance which became the subject of extensive coverage in both print and broadcast media. In light of this supervening event, we opined that whatever relief we grant to petitioner in this case whether we will restrain, enjoin or nullify his preventive suspension, the same will no longer serve any practical value," the resolution read.

The appellate court stressed that though Binay's second preventive suspension has not prescribed, it has been deemed "overtaken, if not superseded, by the order of dismissal by Ombudsman Carpio-Morales."

"Petitioner, having been dismissed from his post as Makati Mayor, will not be able to take it back regardless of how we resolve the validity of his preventive suspension in the present case.

"Accordlingly, the petition is dismissed on ground of mootness," the resolution read.