Makati Councilor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr. has asked the Makati Regional Trial Court to intervene in the legal clash brewing among members of the Makati City Council that are allied with him and with Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, one of his rivals for the mayoralty race in the country’s premier financial district.

Councilor Binay asked the Judge Winlove Dumayas of the Makati RTC branch 59 to nullify the committee reorganization engineered by Mercado, saying it was illegally pursued through flagrant violation of the City Council’s internal rules of procedure.

In a 24-page petition for certiorari and prohibition, Binay Jr. asked the court to set aside Mercado’s act of voting and breaking the tie created by the equal number of votes in favor and against the reorganization of the Committees on Rules and Education, which Councilor Binay chaired.

Binay Jr. also asked the court to restrain Councilors Elias Tolentino, Jr. and Salvador Pangilinan, from assuming their posts as new chairmen of the Committees on Rules and Education, respectively.

“I respectfully pray that the court issue a preliminary mandatory injunction order and desist from recognizing the new composition of the two committees and issue another preliminary mandatory injunction ordering Councilors Tolentino and Pangilinan to desist from assuming their illegally acquired chairmanships,” Binay Jr. said.

Binay Jr. also asked the court to issue a status quo ante order requiring the parties to observe status quo so as not to render the issues raised in the petition moot and academic.