THE SUPREME COURT (SC) upheld a ruling of a Quezon City trial court, denying the petition of Busan Universal Rail, Inc. (BURI) to prohibit the Department of Transportation-Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3 from terminating their P3.8-billion maintenance contract.
In a 14-page decision dated Feb. 26, the SC’s second division said the QC Regional Trial Court Branch 105 “properly dismissed” the petition of BURI.
The firm asked the trial court to issue interim measures of protection. It noted that the trial court has the authority to issue such as stated in implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act (RA) 9184 or the Government Procurement Act, which cited RA 9285 or the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act of 2004.
Section 28 of the law on alternative dispute resolution allows that grant of interim measure of protection by a proper court.
But the court noted a previous decision, which said the law on alternative dispute resolution must give way to Republic Act No. 8975, the law that allows only the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order and writs of preliminary injunction in cases involving national government projects.
“In as much as petitioner was seeking to restrain respondent from terminating MRT-3 Contract, the cited pronouncements in Falcon find application. Thus, the RTC properly dismissed petitioner’s petition,” it ruled.
The court junked the claim of the firm that there is an “extreme urgency involving constitutional issue making the prohibition under RA 8975 inapplicable.
The SC also said that other matters raised and parties’ factual allegations and counter-allegations were “already touch upon the merits of the main controversy.”
“We deem it best to refrain from ruling on this issue and the matters surrounding it since they should be threshed out and litigated in the appropriate arbitration proceedings between parties,” it said.
The Transportation department in November 2017 announced that it terminated the contract with BURI, saying the company failed to address the issues raised in the notice of termination such as poor performance, and failure to ensure efficiency and availability of trains, among others.
BURI asked the trial court to issue interim measures of protection with prayer for issuance of a temporary order of protection under the special administrative dispute resolution rules, seeking “to maintain the status quo and enjoin” DoTr-MRT from terminating the contract.
The RTC in October 2017 denied the petition, the firm filed a motion for reconsideration which was denied by the court in December 2017, citing RA 8975.
The decision was penned by Associate Justice Henri Jean Paul B. Inting and concurred by Senior Associate Justice Estela M. Perlas-Bernabe, Associate Justice Ramon Paul L. Hernando and Edgardo L. Delos Santos, and retired Associate Justice Andres B. Reyes, Jr. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas
