G.R. No. 117661 - DANIEL VILLANUEVA, TERRY VILLANUEVA-YU, SUSAN VILLANUEVA, EDEN VILLANUEVA AND FRANKIE VILLANUEVA, VS. HON. COURT OF APPEALS AND BERNARDINO VILLANUEVA.

Ruling

Accordingly, pursuant to PD 902-A, as amended by P.D. No. 17999, Atty. Ruben Ladia is hereby appointed as Chairman of the Committee, Atty. Teresita Siao and Atty. Julito Bajan, as members thereof, all of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who shall have the following functions, duties and responsibilities, viz.: 1. To take custody of, and control over all the existing assets and properties in the name of Filipinas Textile Mills, Inc.; 2. To evaluate the existing assets, liabilities, earnings and operations of subject corporation; 3. To determine the best way to salvage and protect the interest of the investors and creditors and the corporation; 4. To report to this Commission (sic) on all of the above within sixty (60) days from issuance hereof, and be responsible to this Commission for the implementation of all necessary orders, and/or directives of this Forum relative to and in connection with their functions and responsibilities x x x." [22] Dissatisfied with the aforecited ruling of the hearing panel, petitioners filed with the SEC en banc a petition for certiorari assailing the TRO, dated May 14, 1992, on the ground that it was issued without prior notice and hearing and without the requisite posting of the appropriate bond therefor as well as the order, dated June 2, 1992, which allowed the perpetuation of the effects of the aforementioned TRO if only because the question of its validity has been mooted by the appointment in the same order of June 2, 1992 of a committee of receivers for the corporation. The petition for certiorari was docketed as SEC-EB No. 313. Opposition thereto was filed by private respondent on June 29, 1992. A reply to that opposition was, in turn, subsequently filed by petitioners on August 17, 1992. While the aforecited petition for certiorari was pending in the SEC en banc, the SEC SICD hearing panel, in an order, [23] dated March 22, 1993, dissolved the committee of receivers. This action of the panel followed the recommendation of the receivership committee that: "x x x Filipinas Textile Mills, Inc., seemingly without any property or assets to speak of, is virtually bankrupt. The receivership committee x x could not, perforce, carry out its assigned task, powers, functions, duties and responsibilities x x x and is therefore left with no alternative but to recommend that the said committee be dissolved And, in view of the failure of the company to operate as a going concern since 1985, or more than seven (7) years now, coupled with the in-fighting of the stockholders, it is finally recommended that Section 22 of the Corporation Code, particularly, 'if a corporation has commenced the transaction of its business but subsequently becomes continuously inoperative for a period of at least five (5) years, the same shall be a ground for the suspension or revocation of its corporate franchise or certificate of incorporation,' be enforced and or applied by the Honorable Hearing Panel." [24] In the same order, the heari