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Thursday, May 18, 2006
Cebu City ready to fight CA verdict upholding Talisay
Cebu City Hall lawyers yesterday vowed to fight the validity of the law declaring Talisay a city up to the Supreme Court.
Acting City Attorney Rodolfo Golez also dismissed the Court of Appeals (CA) decision alluding to the timing of the petition, which raised questions on the motive.
“We will file a motion for reconsideration and fight it up to the Supreme Court. The motive is not a legal issue. It’s the validity of the law (we are questioning). With due respect the court, they can squarely decide on the legal issue,” Golez told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.
Golez said there is no prescriptive period if the law is invalid and unconstitutional.
“The validity can be attacked anytime,” he added.
For his part, the mayor’s consultant on legal affairs was unfazed by the CA’s ruling, as this is just an “initial” decision.
It only becomes final if Cebu City fails to file a motion for reconsideration within 15 days, said lawyer Raul Bitoon.
Disturbing
Bitoon, who filed the petition representing the mayor, however, “finds disturbing” the CA’s statement on the motive of the petition.
“In both our petition and position paper, we clearly stated the reason why we questioned the validity of the law. It was because at the time of the deliberation and up to the plebiscite, we were not aware that they failed to meet the requirement on the population. Had we known this, we would not have hesitated to raise the issue then,” he said.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña insisted that Talisay fell short of the requirements of at least 150,000 population and 100 square kilometers of land requirements, as stipulated in the 1991 Local Government Code, when it applied for cityhood.
It presented as evidence the National Statistics Office (NSO) Census of Population, which showed Talisay just had a population of 148,110 in 2000.
But the Talisay City Government earlier explained that NSO made a special census in May 2000 specifically for Talisay’s application for cityhood.
Based “on the number of residents working and studying in other component cities and residential subdivisions of the City (Talisay),” the census showed a population of 150,238.
Four years
Osmeña, who has been at odds with Rep. Eduardo Gullas (Cebu, 1st district) following Talisay’s claim over part of the 295-hectare South Reclamation Project, filed last year a petition with the CA seeking to nullify Talisay’s cityhood.
But in its May 10 decision, penned by Associate Justice Apolinario D. Bruselas Jr., the CA 18th Division upheld the legality of Republic Act 8979, declaring that the Talisay Cityhood “does not suffer from any constitutional or statutory infirmities.”
The CA even wondered why it took Osmeña four years to file such a petition when Talisay became a component city of Cebu Province in 2001 yet.
“This is a huge triumph for all my brother Talisaynons. Not the least, the people of Talisay prayed that justice be done for them,” said Gullas, Talisay’s first city mayor.
Gullas was instrumental in the enactment of RA 8979, the law creating Talisay City.
For her part, Talisay City Legal Officer Aurora Econg said, “It is expected that they (Cebu City) would file a motion for reconsideration, it’s a matter of right. We will answer it.” (GAC/GC)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (May 18, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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