By Perfecto T. Raymundo
MANILA, Dec. 10 (PNA) — The Court of Appeals (CA) on Wednesday deferred action on the petition of Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Director General Alan Purisima to temporarily stop the enforcement of the 60-day preventive suspension on him by the Ombudsman.
Instead, the CA Special Tenth Division ordered the Ombudsman to submit its comment on the petition filed by Purisima.
The CA gave the Ombudsman a period of 10 days from notice within which to file its comment.
Likewise, the CA did not decide whether it would issue a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) as being sought by the petitioner.
In the petition for certiorari filed before the CA on Wednesday, Purisima claimed that Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales committed grave abuse of discretion when she issued the preventive suspension order against him last Dec. 4.
The PNP Chief also said that the preventive suspension order has no factual and legal basis because the Ombudsman has no “substantial evidence” against him.
The six-month prevention suspension order against Purisima and 17 other PNP officials stemmed from the alleged irregularity in the selection of Werfast Documentary Agency as the official courier of the PNP for its firearms licenses. (PNA)