CA creates special division over Junjun Binay's suspension

MANILA, Philippines — The Court of Appeals (CA) formed a special division of five associate justices to rule on the petition of suspended Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin "Junjun" Binay against his second preventive suspension order.

The CA added two additional associate justices to the initial three associate justices who handled Binay's petition following the Ninth Division's "2-1" vote against the suspension order issued by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales.

Based on the internal rules of the CA, the decision should be carried out after "unanimous" voting but the CA is allowed to add two members to come up with a majority decision.

For the Binay case, it was not clear whether the "2-1" decision was against Binay.

New members of the CA Special Division, Associate Justices Franchito Diamante and Socorro Inting joined the three original members of the Ninth Division, namely Associate Justices Amy Lazaro-Javier, Rodil Zalameda and the ponente of the decision, Melchor Sadang.

Diamante dropped hints that he would inhibit himself as he is a member of the CA Internal Committee handling the probe into bribery allegations of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV against two CA justices who handled the first preventive suspension order of the Ombudsman against Binay.

This is the second suspension order imposed by the Ombudsman against Binay.

The first suspension order of Binay was issued in March due to the alleged overpriced construction of the Makati City Hall Building II during the tenure of his father Vice President Jejomar "Jojo" Binay as mayor, while the second suspension was ordered late June related to the alleged anomalous construction of the Makati Science High School building.

In July, Binay temporarily stepped down from his office. He was replaced by vice mayor and current acting Makati City Mayor Romulo "Kid" Peña.