MANILA, Philippines — A Manila City court judge Friday temporarily stopped the Department of Justice (DoJ) from conducting preliminary investigation proceedings against dismissed National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) director Magtanggol Gatdula in connection with the alleged abduction of an undocumented Japanese national last year.

Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 22 Executive Judge Marino De la Cruz Jr. on Wednesday issued a 72-hour temporary restraining order (TRO) to pave the way for the hearing of Gatdula's urgent petition for certiorari and prohibition more than a week after he was fired by Malacañang.

He cited Rule 58 Sec. 5 (2) of the Rules of Court in a 3-page order when he gave out the TRO.

“The Rules of Court gives this office the discretionary authority to consider the application for the issuance ex parte of a temporary restraining order effective for a period of 72 hours from the time of issuance if the matter is of extreme urgency and the applicant with suffer grave injustice and irreparable injury,” said the three- page order of Judge De la Cruz.

Aside from granting Gatdula's request for a TRO, Judge De la Cruz also ordered the special raffle of his petition for certiorari. The case was raffled off to the sala of Manila RTC branch 8 Judge Felixberto Olalia.

The DoJ fact-finding panel, in a report released last January 19, held that Gatdula should be subjected to preliminary investigation for alleged kidnapping and serious illegal detention in connection with the P6 kidnap-for-ransom complaint filed by Noriyo Ohara.