CA junks Planas bid seeking to stop EO nullifying her appointment

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has dismissed the bid of former Nayong Pilipino executive director Charito Planas to stop the implementation of President Aquino’s Executive Order 2, which revoked her supposed midnight appointment in 2010.

In a six-page resolution promulgated last March 16, the 12th Division of the appellate court denied Planas’ motion seeking the issuance of a status quo ante order against EO 2 that had been rendered moot and academic by the expiration of her term last March 9.

The CA will still rule on the merits of the petition and resolve legal questions raised by Planas against EO 2.

In fact, it directed Planas and her lawyer Jose Venturas Aspiras to submit a reply to the Office of the Solicitor General’s comment on her petition.

The Supreme Court remanded to the CA last January all petitions of officials covered by EO 2.

The SC already required Planas and her lawyer to file the reply but they failed to do so, resulting in the issuance of a show cause order in November last year.

The CA reiterated the earlier order of SC.

“Accordingly, the Court resolves to direct the petitioner and her counsel to file the required reply within a fresh period of 10 days from notice hereof and likewise to comply, within the same period, with the show cause order of the Supreme Court per its Resolution dated Nov. 22, 2011,” read the order penned by Associate Justice Angelita Gacutan.

The other members of the CA division, Associate Justices Magdangal de Leon and Francisco Acosta concurred with the ruling.

In her petition filed in December 2010, Planas questioned the issuance of EO 2 and the appointment of her replacement Apolonio Anota Jr. as executive director and trustee of the Nayong Pilipino Foundation (NPF), an attached agency of the Department of Tourism.

She named as respondents – in her petition for prohibition and mandamus with urgent request for temporary restraining order – Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., then Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim, and Anota.