Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte warned the Court of Appeals that he would ignore the judiciary branch of government if it issues a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to use a government property occupied and leased by Sunvar Realty Development Corporation, which is owned by the Prieto families.
The Prieto family owns the country's leading national broadsheet, which is critical to the Duterte's drug war. Though the case is now pending at the Court of Appeals, Duterte, according to GMA news online, warned its judiciaries by saying that "do not wait for the day that I will no longer believe in you (the justices)".
Duterte announced that his administration would like to use the Mile Long Property, located in the country's business center Makati City, for the Filipino people.
The announcement came after Duterte criticised the Philippine Daily Inquirer for being biased against his administration. Moreover, the president also accused the ABS-CBN, the country's leading television network, of biased reporting.
The camp and owners of Mile Long Property refused to make any further comment on the President's stern warning.
Duterte also appealed to the highest court to control the number of TRO issuances as some of them could hamper the speedy implementation of government projects. However, this claim was rejected by Chief Justice, Maria Lourdes Sereno, who said that the Court of Appeals have granted only one TRO for government infrastructure projects from 2012 to 2013 and in 2015 while there were 2,039 petitions with the court, only 2.45% were issued and not one of them is related to government-implemented projects.
A temporary restraining order is a legal order issued by a court that requires the parties concerned in the case to retain the status quo until a court can deliberate further evidence and decide whether or not issue a preliminary injunction.
