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Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Lawyer asks court not to dismiss suit on road closure
Believing he has a legal standing in filing the civil suit against Mayor Tomas Osmeña for closing the South Coastal Road (SCR), lawyer Alfredo Sipalay is asking the court not to dismiss the case he had filed against the official.
Sipalay, in a vehement opposition to the motion to dismiss, said he has a right to question the closure of the SCR because he was prejudiced by Osmeña’s move.
“There is no constitutional justification for (Osmeña) to abridge or deny plaintiff access to the public use of the SCR. And when he closed it because he had a quarrel with officials of the neighboring city (Talisay), he violated the constitutional rights of (Sipalay) to travel on said road,” the motion read.
Taxpayer’s suit
Osmeña, City Administrator Francisco Fernandez and South Reclamation Project (SRP) Manager Nigel Paul Villarete were sued in court for alleged violation of Sipalay’s constitutional rights due to the closure of the national road.
The Cebu City Government earlier asked the court to dismiss the case because Sipalay reportedly has not paid his taxes, which means that he has no legal right to file a taxpayer’s suit against the City.
But Sipalay, in his motion, questioned the timing of the filing of the motion to dismiss considering that the case has been heard for more than three months already.
“Defendants present their motion after the presentation of three witnesses and clearly was resorted to avoid defendant (Osmeña) from obeying the compulsory process of this court for him to testify. The Honorable Mayor had refused to acknowledge the processes of this court twice and the filing of the present motion was clearly to avoid the scheduled hearing of this case when (Osmeña) was supposed to testify as he promised,” the motion read.
Aside from Sipalay, lawyers Kit Enriquez and Benjamin Militar also signed the vehement opposition.
Sipalay’s witnesses earlier testified in court that Osmeña and the two other officials do not have the right to close the SCR because it is a national road.
SRP passes
The SCR is inside the SRP, which is a project of the Cebu City Government.
Sipalay also said the closure violated the equal protection clause stipulated in the Constitution, since the issuance of SRP passes would discriminate those who do not have a pass.
“There are no criteria on what basis the passes are issued, and none have been disseminated, indicating that its issuance was totally discretionary on the part of the mayor and dependent on his will alone. The defendant mayor has not come up with any valid reason why he is exercising an arbitrary discretion in issuing passes, to impair the right of every person to have access to the said road,” the motion read. (GN)
(July 13, 2005 issue)
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