THE Supreme Court has upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that reversed a writ of preliminary injunction issued by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court on the P8.2 billion information technology project of the Land Transportation Office, whose component includes the supply and delivery of driver’s license cards.
The injunction was secured by Amalgamated Motors Philippines, Inc. (AMPI), one of two prospective bidders for the IT project, from Quezon City RTC Branch 98 Judge Afable Cagijal.
Amalgamated Motors had paid P84,000 for the purchase of terms of reference (TOR) for the 2010 bidding of the driver’s license cards contract.
The other bidder was Realtime Data Management Services, Inc. (RDMSI).
But their bids were not opened as the then Department of Transportation and Communication, the mother agency of the LTO, ordered a review of the TOR and eventually modified it.
Then DOTC Secretary Jose De Jesus eventually suspended the project and issued an order establishing a Special Bids and Awards Committee to handle the bidding for the drivers’ license project.
In its petition to the SC, AMPI argued that the appellate court erred in setting aside the injunction issued by the Quezon City RTC and stressed that all bidders, whether prospective or qualified, have a clear and unmistakable right to demand that the bids and awards committee conducting the bid is duly authorized to do so.
In affirming the 2012 ruling of the appellate court, the SC’s Second Division said since it was only a prospective bidder, AMPI had no “clear and unmistakable right” to warrant the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction.
“In the present case, petitioner, being a mere prospective bidder, did not have any clear and unmistakable right,” the ruling penned by Associate Justice Jhosep Lopez said.
Concurring with the ruling are Associate Justices Amy Lazaro-Javier, Mario Lopez and Antonio Kho Jr.
The High Court explained that a preliminary injunction does not protect or enforce contingent, abstract, or future rights.
It added AMPI cannot claim that it stands to suffer irreparable injury if the LTO-IT contract was awarded to another contractor or company.
“Aside from failing to explain how it will suffer such a huge amount of monetary loss, this Court has ruled that easily quantifiable damages cannot be considered grave and irreparable,” the SC added.
