Source: http://lawlibrary.chanrobles.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=45920:158874&amp;catid=1459&amp;Itemid=566
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 02:18:17+00:00

Document:
MAYOR SOBAIDA T. BALINDONG of the Municipality of Tagoloan, Province of Lanao del Norte, Petitioner, v. VICE GOVERNOR TIMOTEO D. DACALOS, PROVINCIAL BOARD MEMBERS CESAR R. CANOY, SITTIE AMIRAH IRMA U. ALI, SIRAD D. TAHA, DAVID Q. DITUCALAN, SIMPLICIO FERNANDEZ, Jr., RUFA L. BILIRAN, MAGSAYSAY P. ARUMPAC, AGUAM M. MALO, MASTURA B. USMAN, MANUEL D. RODA, AMER K. BAZER, GOVERNOR IMELDA Q. DIMAPORO all of the Province of Lanao Del Norte and MUNICIPAL TREASURER MIA M. DIMAALAM, Al Hadj, of the Municipality of Tagoloan, Province of Lanao del Norte, Respondents.
WHEREFORE, the instant petition for certiorari , prohibition and mandamus is DENIED DUE COURSE and DISMISSED.
An appeal shall not prevent a decision from becoming final or executory. The respondent shall be considered as having been placed under preventive suspension during the pendency of the appeal. . . .
On 01 April 2002, the Court of Appeals issued a writ of preliminary prohibitory injunction12 enjoining respondents Gov. Imelda Dimaporo, Vice Gov. Timoteo Dacalos, the members of the Provincial Board of Lanao Del Norte, and all other persons acting for and in their behalf, from executing or implementing the Order of suspension against petitioner and/or in furtherance thereof, pending termination of the litigation unless sooner lifted by the same Court.
But unfortunately, the remedies of appeal and certiorari are mutually exclusive and not alternative or successive (Obando v. Court of Appeals, 366 SCRA 673). More so when the law, that is the Local Government Code, explicitly provides the proper remedy is appeal and the forum to go is the Office of the President.
The rationale of the Court of Appeals in dismissing the petition is quite simple. Petitioner should have appealed the decision of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Lanao Del Norte to the Office of the President pursuant to the Local Government Code.
(b) A complaint against any elective official of a municipality shall be filed before the sangguniang panlalawigan whose decision may be appealed to the Office of the President; . . . .
(b) The Office of the President, in the case of decision of the sangguniang panlalawigan and the sangguniang panlungsod of highly urbanized cities and independent component cities.
It is apparent from the foregoing provisions of law that the remedy of appeal to the Office of the President was available to petitioner. Since appeal was available, resort to filing a petition for certiorari , prohibition and mandamus with the Court of Appeals under Rule 65,14 was inapt.
The writ of certiorari dealt with in Rule 65 of the Rules of Court is a prerogative writ, never demandable as a matter of right, "never issued except in the exercise of judicial discretion."17 Under the circumstances of this case, petitioner failed to clearly show that an appeal to the Office of the President was not the plain, speedy, and adequate remedy, which would justify judicial intervention.
Lastly, we are not convinced that the exceptions to the rule of exhaustion of administrative remedies apply in this case since the petitioner failed to clearly show that flexibility in its application is warranted.
WHEREFORE, finding no reversible error on the part of the Court of Appeals, the ancillary reliefs prayed for are denied, and the petition is, as it is hereby, DISMISSED. Costs against petitioner.
Austria-Martinez, (Acting Chairman), and Callejo, Sr., JJ., concur.
1 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure.
3 Rollo, pp. 60-73, penned by Justice Roberto Barrios, with Justices Bienvenido Reyes and Rebecca De Guia-Salvador, concurring.
5 Rollo, pp. 16, 85-86.
7 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure.
15 Rivera v. Espiritu, G.R. No. 135547, 23 January 2002, 374 SCRA 351.
16 Metropolitan Manila Development Authority v. JANCOM Environmental Corp., G.R. No. 147465, 30 January 2002, 375 SCRA 320.
17 Nunal v. Commission on Audit, G.R. No. 78648, 24 January 1989, 169 SCRA 356.
18 Section 1 of Rule 65 of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure.
19 Oaminal v. Castillo, G.R. No. 152776, 08 October 2003, 413 SCRA 189, citing National Steel Corporation v. Court of Appeals, 381 Phil. 219 (2000); Province of Bulacan v. Court of Appeals, 359 Phil. 779 (1998).
20 Ibid., citing Ley Construction and Devt. Corp. v. Hyatt Industrial Manufacturing Corp., G.R. No. 133145, 29 August 2000, 339 SCRA 223, and Raymundo v. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 137793, 29 September 1999, 315 SCRA 494.

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