CCMC billing officer denied TRO by court

CEBU, Philippines – The court denied the temporary restraining order sought by Maria Lourdes Archua, the billing officer of the Cebu City Medical Center, after she and her legal counsel failed to attend the hearing yesterday.

"Their non-appearance indicates that there is no extreme urgency," said Regional Trial Court Branch 58 Judge Gabriel Inglis.

Inglis said Archua's legal counsel, Gloria Lastimosa-Dalawampu, filed a motion to reset yesterday's hearing because she has another hearing in Manila.

"They cannot presume that I will grant their motion. The petitioner did not even appear," Inglis said.

Inglis explained that the nature of the TRO issuance is immediate while the main case, which is the writ of preliminary injunction, has still to be heard.

Archua asked the court Friday to issue a TRO preventing Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama from proceeding with the administrative hearing against her.

Archua was suspended for 30 days over the missing 28 Philippine Health Insurance Corp. checks amounting to P239,460.25. Her suspension ended August 21.

Rama's legal counsel, Jun Maratas, opposed the resetting of the hearing yesterday.

Aside from Rama, named respondents in the case are lawyers Carlo Vincent Gimena, Dominic Dino, Ferdinand Cañete, Lecel Llamedo and Jose Marie Poblete.

The court will hear today the petition for the issuance of writ of preliminary injunction filed by Archua, who asked the court to restrain all the respondents from con-ducting the administrative hearing against her.

In her 19-page petition, Archua wanted the court to replace Rama and City Legal Office personnel as chairman and members, respectively, of the especial investigation committee that looks into the disappearance of the checks.

Archua also wanted the court to order the committee to conduct a fair hearing, aside from seeking access to transcript of stenographic notes and other records of the case.

She also wanted to be allowed the right to record the administrative proceedings.

Archua contended that the committee has been unfairly conducting an investigation against her. - /LPM (FREEMAN)