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Sunday, September 11, 2005
Judge junks plea for freeze order vs Jadewell operations
By Rimaliza Opiña
A LOCAL court has junked the petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the implementation of Baguio City's pay-parking ordinance for lack of merit.
"It appears that the operation of Jadewell. by virtue of a memorandum of agreement with co-defendant Baguio City, has been continuous for almost five years up to the present time, the act to be enjoined by the plaintiffs has already been done for years and a TRO at this point is no longer the proper remedy," said Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 3 Presiding Judge Fernando Vil Pamintuan.
The TRO petition was lodged by businessman Benedicto Balajadia and several other residents of the city.
Pamintuan, meanwhile, scheduled on September 15 and 16 the hearings on the petition for injunction.
Balajadia, along with lawyer Paterno Aquino, Richard Laberinto, Rolando Abellera, Fernando Sangalang, Allan Atos and Angelino Sangalang, last month filed a petition for the nullification of the ordinance. They also sought the issuance of a TRO and an injunction.
The case, which was originally raffled to the sala of RTC Branch 4 Presiding Judge Clarence Villanueva, was transferred to Pamintuan after the former inhibited himself from hearing the case.
Prior to Pamintuan's issuance of an order, initial hearings have already been undertaken. Mayor Braulio Yaranon was in fact presented as a hostile witness.
But to avoid any legal objection or infirmities to any resolution that the Court may render, Villanueva, on August 12, ordered the petitioners as well as its Clerk of Court to furnish the Office of the Solicitor General and the City Prosecutor's Office, copies of the petition.
The petitioners argued the implementation of the ordinance contravenes some provisions of the Bill of Rights, Local Government Code and the Civil Code.
They claimed that collection of parking and towing fees deprives the public of their right to due process of law, stressing that Jadewell's operation, which is a private entity, is not authorized.
Adding that the roads where the pay-parking firm operates are beyond the commerce of man, the petitioners maintained that the ordinance, which the parking firm has used as main argument in almost all of their answers filed before courts of law, is invalid from the beginning.
(September 11, 2005 issue)
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