Public hearing on P250M loan controversy set

A PUBLIC hearing on the P250-million loan of Bacolod City government with the Philippine Veterans Bank has been set at 8 a.m. Friday at the Social Hall of SRA Bldg. in Singcang-Airport.

Negros Oriental Representative George Arnaiz, chair committee on local government in the House of Representatives, will preside the hearing.

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A notice of hearing has been issued already. Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson said it was already received by his office.

Sayson said the public hearing is an inquiry in aid of legislation into the propriety of the multi-million loan of the City Government.

“Truly, it’s an aid of legislation and not a congressional inquiry” said Sayson.

The hearing will deliberate on House Resolution 1479, a resolution directing the house Committees on Local Government and Banks and Financial Intermediaries in the City Government’s loan from PVB.

The proposed resolution was authored by Bacolod Representative Monico Puentevella.

The loan was to finance the planned squatter relocation of the City Government at Vista Alegre in Barangay Granada.

Postpone

Sayson, meantime, said he would request for a postponement of the hearing because it coincides with the city’s opening of the Bacolaodiat Festival, another major tourism event in Bacolod.

Sayson hoped that Congress would consider the postponement appeal.

Puentevella also said some congressmen will spend their time in Bacolod to attend the hearing, especially the chairman of Committee on Local Government.

Puentevella said there were suggestions from the Department of Finance and the Commission on Audit that the governor and mayor in the country should only borrow money according to the term limit of his/her service.

Motion to dismiss

City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan said: “The judge opted to rule on the main case rather than on the ancillary remedy.”

Bayatan referred his statement to Judge Pepito Gellada of Regional Trial Court Branch 53.

This after former city mayor and councilor Rolando Villamor filed a case against Mayor Evelio Leonardia and the council members who questioned the legality of the loan for the issuance of temporary restraining order or writ of preliminary prohibitory injunction enjoining the mayor, some city officials, and the PVB from enforcing the loan agreement and to cease and desist from applying for any loan with any banking institution.

“To hear a preliminary injunction where the main case is subject for dismissal, the judge opted to have the motion to dismiss rather heard and considered, so that the preliminary injunction may or may not be issued depending upon the resolution of the motion to dismiss” said Bayatan.

He said the motion to dismiss strikes into the very core of the case, where the preliminary injunctions are purely an auxiliary remedy.

Bayatan noted that since the court denied the TRO, “the court would still hear the preliminary injunction.”

He added that the plaintiff had already submitted their comment to the motion to dismiss, adding they have manifested that they haven’t received the copy yet.

Bayatan said they also asked for a 10-day period from receipt of comment to the motion to dismiss and to file their reply to the opposition of the motion to dismiss. He said after 10 days, the case will be run for a resolution.

‘Imminent demolition’

There are about 590 informal settles whose homes are in “imminent demolition” by virtue of a writ of execution by the court.

Some 359 families living in flood-prone areas in the city are also due for immediate relocation.

“The city or any right-minded person for that matter must not wait for disaster or calamity to happen in order to act,” noted Bayatan.

Aside from the 359 families, there are still 6,196 families who are also living in danger areas while 7,723 families live in a doubled-up housing “that further increases the immediate need of land for housing.”

The next hearing has been set on March 2 for the continuation of the preliminary injunction or motion to dismiss of the loan controversy.

Opposition

The complainants and defendants who called for the dismissal of the motion have been summoned to submit their oppositions within 10 days for their comment.

Provincial Agrarian Reform Adjudicator Isagani Cuello of Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (Darab) said city legal officer Bayatan manifested that instead of representing their witness, “he will just attach their document in support of their motion to dismiss, and Attorney Leon Moya.”

Moya is the legal counsel of the complainants who also requested that he should be given 10 days to file his comment to the motion filed by Bayatan.

The complainants include Elsie Guanco, spouses Alan Cuyos and Ma. Fe Cuyos, Alteo Perez and Antonio Perez Jr.

Alan Cuyos earlier filed his affidavit of desistance, claiming that he has not caused the filing of the complainant and he did not sign in the verification of the documents.

The case was filed at Darab seeking for a declaration of nullify of sale and injunction with prayer for TRO and writ of preliminary injunction against owners of the Arao properties that include Nellie Antigua, Romanita Andal, Lynette Punzalan, Sonia Arao, Anelie Arao, Elisieta Arao, Aniano Arao Jr., Eugenio Arao, Sophie Nguyen, and Eva Gumtang.

Lack of jurisdiction

Bayatan said they filed a motion to dismiss due to “lack of jurisdiction” of Darab in the instant case.

The complainants are not real parties in interest, thus the instant case shall be dismissed for failure to state a cause of action, said Bayatan.

He said the complaints couldn't establish their actual right or interest in the instant case whereby restraining order or injunction cannot be obtained.

He said the tsubject lands, while covered in the deed of sale alleged in the second and third causes of action in the complaint, are for housing and infrastructure projects of the City Government.

"Thus cannot be enjoined by a restraining order, preliminary injunction, or preliminary mandatory injunction pursuant to Presidential Decree 1818 and applicable jurisprudence,” said Bayatan.

Cuello, for his part, said the prayer for the issuance of the restraining order will now be resolved by the board in the submission of the memorandum by all parties in compliance with the order dated January 29, 2010. (MAP)