Capitol seeks inhibition of judge in loan suit
ROXAS CITY – The camp of Capiz Governor Victor Tanco, Sr., through lawyer Jose Villanueva, recently filed a petition calling for the inhibition of the judge who handles the Special Civil Action case entitled SP Member Gilbert Ardivilla versus Victor Tanco, et al.
The 15-page petition for Omnibus motions, received by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 19 has three motions: A) re-raffle of instant case (Due to non-compliance with Par. c Sec. 4, Rule 58 of the 1997 Rules on Civil Procedure); B) Inhibition/disqualification of the honorable presiding judge; and (C) holding in abeyance of any action on the prayer in the petition.
The petition said that the instant case is filed by Hon. Gilbert Ardivilla, an opposition member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP), against Gov. Tanco and the SP as an institution of which the former is part of.
The petition added, strangely, if not anomalously, only selected incumbent members thereof were impleaded, all belonging to the present administration who are all members of the Liberal Party as contra distinguished from the opposition’s Ugyon Kita Capiz.
The petition also stated that Ardivilla, whose wife Mimi is running for board member, while the wife of the honorable judge is the husband of Atty. Albert Deslate who is running for city councilor, all are under the banner of Ugyon Kita Capiz.
Earlier, the RTC Executive Judge here has denied the request for the issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) effective 72 hours relative to the petition of Board Member Gilbert Ardivilla for Certiorari and Prohibition with prayer for issuance of a Writ of Preliminary Prohibitory injunction and TRO against the proposed capitol loan amounting to P683,160,000.
RTC Executive Judge Edward Contreras, in his order dated Dec 29, 2009, said finding no extreme urgency in the subject matter of the instant petition, “the court denies the request for issuance of TRO effective for 72 hours.”
