THE Supreme Court on Tuesday abandoned its jurisprudence on the condonation doctrine, a common defense invoked by elected officials in evading administrative liability for the acts committed during their previous terms in office.
A highly placed source said the justices voted to discard the doctrine, which effectively extinguishes a reelected official’s
administrative liability from any alleged wrongdoing during a previous term, when it resolved the case of dismissed Makati Mayor Junjun Binay.
However, the application of the abandonment of the doctrine would be prospective as agreed upon by the majority of the justices during the voting, the source said.
That means the doctrine could no longer be invoked upon the finality of the decision on the Binay case and for future cases.
Binay invoked the doctrine in questioning the earlier preventive suspension order issued by the Ombudsman against him.
He said the alleged anomalies were committed during first and second stages of the project, when he was not yet mayor of the city.
The third and fourth phases, on the other hand, were then undertaken during his previous term from 2010 to 2013.
The source said the high court likewise affirmed the power of the Court of Appeals to review and stop the administrative orders of the office of the Ombudsman against officials.
The high court rejected the position of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales that only the high court could review and stop her orders on the administrative cases based on Section 14 of Republic Act 6770 or the Ombudsman Act.
Such provision in the Ombudsman law was declared ineffective as Congress did not consult the high court in approving it, according to the decision written by Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe.
The Court’s decision came after the Office of the Ombudsman filed a petition assailing the orders of the Court of Appeals stopping its first preventive suspension order against Mayor Binay.
In her petition last March, Morales questioned the temporary restraining order and writ of preliminary injunction issued by the appellate court stopping her suspension order against Binay in connection with the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall building 2. Rey E.