Suspended Mayor Joniper Villegas of Vallehermoso, Oriental Negros, has secured a 60-day Temporary Restraining Order effective 3 p.m. of Jan. 18 from the Court of Appeals 20th Division in Cebu City, stopping the implementation of the orders from the Office of the Ombudsman and Department of Interior and Local Government in Manila suspending him.

Associate Justices Antonio Villamor, Pampio Abarintos, and Francisco Acosta handed down the two-page TRO dated Jan. 16 directing DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno and Over-all Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro not to implement the suspension order. The CA said it issued the resolution on the "urgency of the matter and not to render ineffectual any judgment subsequently promulgated in the case and in order to preserve the status quo as well as the rights of the parties during the pendency of the case."

It also ordered Vallehermoso Vice Mayor Buenaventura Olladas who had been designated to assume the mayoralty post, to revert back to his former position.

The TRO issued is effective for 60 days unless either lifted or dissolved enjoining the respondents and any person acting in behalf from implementing the assailed orders until further orders from the court, the CA added.

Meanwhile, during the impasse in the municipality of Vallehermoso, the police provincial command will do what is appropriate if police action is needed, police provincial director Sr./Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe, said.

He told the DAILY STAR yesterday that even without the TRO, he did not deploy troops in the municipal building, but Provincial Mobile Group operatives are on standby to quell any violence that may erupt there.

Buenafe said the presence of the police is just to maintain peace and order, although he does not discount the possibility of heated confrontations between the camps of Villegas and Olladas, citing the recent incidents in the provinces of Iloilo and Batangas, and other local government units.

He clarified, though, that he has already been informed about the TRO by the DILG provincial office.*RG

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