Tuesday, November 27, 2007 CA upholds junking of Prime Peak application
THE special Former Eighth Division of the Court of Appeals (CA) upheld an August 2006 decision of the Baguio Validation Committee of the Department of Justice disapproving the application for validation of the transfer certificates of title (TCT) of Prime Peak Properties Limited, Inc.
But this is only with respect to TCT-12826 and 12827 or the properties that are said to have been expanded way above their original sizes.
With respect to T-12824 and T-12825, the CA said the committee's denial was misplaced because Prime Peak never applied for validation.
On August 2006, the committee composed of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales, Solicitor-General Antonio Nachura, and DENR-Lands Management Bureau Director Erwin Tiamson disapproved Prime Peak's application for validation of its nine titles allegedly for false statements.
The disapproval was anchored on the provision of Paragraph 3, Section 11, Title II of the Rules and Regulations of Presidential Decree 1271 or the Act nullifying decrees of registration and certificates of titles covering lands within the Baguio townsite reservation.
Section 11 of the Act states that any false representation in the application or in any document filed in connection (with validation) is ground for disapproval.
Prime Peak filed before the CA a petition for certiorari and prayed for the issuance of a restraining order and injunction. These petitions have subsequently been granted.
The real-estate firm contested the denial, claiming that the committee committed grave abuse of discretion.
Prime Peak maintained that "only a court of competent jurisdiction" could nullify their titles.
However, the CA said in its 27-page decision that the validation committee worked within the bounds of their duties.
"It is a doctrine of long-standing that courts will not interfere in matters which are addressed to the sound discretion of the government agency entrusted with regulation of activities coming under the special and technical training and knowledge of such agency. For the exercise of administrative discretion is a policy decision and a matter that best be discharged by the government agency concerned and not by the courts," a portion of the decision stated.
Last November 7, Prime Peak filed its motion for reconsideration. (Rimaliza Opiña)
