1/5/2021
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In the Decision[22] dated May 23, 2017, the CA granted the petition. Accordingly, it
annulled and set aside the RTC-Tagum Resolution dated August 15, 2016 as well as its
Orders dated September 6, 2016 and September 28, 2016.[23]
The CA decreed that the Decision of the RTC-Tagum in the PPO case had become final
and executory and could no longer be altered except for clerical errors or mistakes.
According to the CA, petitioner's Motion to Account was not in the nature of a motion
for execution of a final and executory judgment, but pertained to a different subject
matter; thus, it must be subject of a separate case.
The CA also elucidated that petitioner's Motion to Account must be dismissed because
petitioner committed forum shopping when he filed it despite the pendency of the
Dissolution case before the RTC-Lapu-Lapu. It noted that: (1) there was forum
shopping considering that these two actions pertained to the same parties, the rights
asserted, and reliefs prayed for arose from the same facts; (2) and any ruling in them
would amount to res judicata.
The CA further noted that the action filed with the RTC-Tagum was a PPO case relating
to acts of violence against women and their children defined under RA 9262. It stressed
that settlement and distribution of properties were not among the objectives and reliefs
specified under RA 9262. Hence, it ruled that the RTC-Tagum had no jurisdiction over
petitioner's Motion to Account, since the PPO case was ruled against petitioner. It
likewise explained that petitioner could not pray for the distribution of his and
respondent's properties because, as respondent therein, petitioner was not allowed to
include any counterclaim in the PPO case.
Furthermore, the CA ruled that the RTC-Tagum committed grave abuse of its discretion
when it cited respondent in indirect contempt even if its basis was a mere motion filed
by petitioner, without observance of the required procedure in indirect contempt cases.
Finally, the CA ratiocinated that the subject notice of appeal involved the disposition of
the RTC-Tagum: (1) convicting respondent for indirect contempt; and (2) ordering the
forfeiture of the co-owned properties in favor of petitioner. These matters, according to
the CA, were appealable and the RTC-Tagum was unjustified in denying the notice of
appeal.
With the denial of his motion for reconsideration, petitioner filed this Petition raising the
sole issue, to wit:
Whether the [CA] erred in granting the petition for certiorari filed by
respondent.[24]
Petitioner's Arguments
In the Petition for Review on Certiorari,[25] petitioner insists that he did not commit
forum shopping when he led the Motion to Account before the RTC-Tagum even if he
pursued it during the pendency of his Dissolution case with the RTC-Lapu-Lapu.[26] He
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