The Supreme Court building in Manila. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court on Thursday stopped the implementation of a Court of Appeals ruling ordering the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig fund) to pay damages to property developer Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corporation.
“Acting on the petitioner’s (HDMF) prayer for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction, the Court likewise resolves to issue the temporary restraining order as prayed for, effective immediately and continuing until further orders from this Court,” the high court said in a ruling issued Thursday.
Covered by the restraining order is the ruling of the Makati City Regional Trial Court, which ruled that Pag-Ibig breached its memorandum of agreement (MOA) and funding commitment agreements with GA when it (Pag-Ibig) refused to accept the replacement buyers offered by GA pursuant to the provisions of their contracts.
Pag-Ibig has accused GA of using “ghost” or “fictitious” borrowers in applying for the loans.
Without a restraining order, the high court said “if the motion for execution is granted, HDMF (Pag-Ibig) would be required to continue transacting with Globe Asiatique which is already suspected of having swindled the government of billions of pesos. For this reason, the TRO is proper.”
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