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Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Court slaps contempt on mayor, council
By Danilo V. Adorador III
A REGIONAL court found Cagayan de Oro Mayor Vicente Emano and other officials guilty of indirect contempt, charging them and their four lawyers with P20,000 and P30,000 fines each.
In a decision issued last Thursday, Regional Trial Court Branch 23 also fined businessman Yian Ping, the owner of UKC Builders that constructed the Cogon Market upon whose contract the case stemmed.
Several Cogon vendors had asked the court last year to nullify the market's Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract, alleging that it contained onerous provisions that violated their private interests.
They also accused Emano and the city councilors who approved the contract in 2005 of granting UKC of undue privileges to the detriment of the City Government's interest.
In a decision issued last August 18, Judge Ma. Anita Esguerra-Lucagbo affirmed her May 3 decision that found the defendants guilty of "deliberately misleading the court," and denied with finality the defendants' subsequent motion for reconsideration.
The court earlier this year dismissed the complaint on the grounds that the Memorandum of Agreement sought to be voided did not exist -- as argued by City Hall lawyers Mart Maandig of the City Legal Office and Councilor Edgar Cabanlas who also acted as counsel for defendants.
When the court found out that the agreement the vendors were referring to existed and was one and the same with the BOT contract entitled "Agreement-Redevelopment of Cogon Market," it said "the defendants deliberately pulled the wool over the court's eyes."
Maandig and Cabanlas had blamed the complainants' alleged failure to specify the document in question, saying they did not err in denying the existence of the agreement referred to since that was not the proper legal name for the BOT contract.
The court did not find this reasoning valid.
No lawyers from the City Legal Office were present Monday afternoon when Sun.Star contacted the office for its response.
(August 29, 2006 issue)
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