Sunday, December 24, 2006 Court denies appeal of officials to hold hearings of Winston’s case in Manila
GOVERNMENT auditors from Manila whom Government Service and Insurance System president and general manager Winston Garcia sued will have to visit Cebu more often than they want to.
This is because the Regional Trial Court (RTC) denied their motion for reconsideration to have the hearings transferred to Manila.
Garcia filed the P2.3-million civil suit against officials of the Commission on Audit (COA) for the observations they issued.
Question
There was a question on whether Garcia filed the suit at the proper venue, considering that he also has a house in Makati City and his work as GSIS president obliges him to be in Manila during office hours.
But Garcia’s lawyer and father Pablo Garcia argued that Winston is a resident of Cebu City where he keeps a house and where his family lives.
RTC Judge Geraldine Faith Econg ruled in favor of defendants Raquel Ramirez-Habitan, Leonor Baodo, Joel Estolatan, Rhoda Pileña, Alexander Juliano and Rosalinda Salvador in a July 11, 2006-order that dismissed the case.
Reinstated
But that order was set aside in a new order penned last Oct. 17.
Econg ordered that the civil suit against the COA officials be reinstated, considering that the law favors the plaintiffs in matters of choosing a venue.
The defendants sought a reconsideration of the Oct. 17-order.
But Winston, in his opposition, noted that the defendants’ motion for reconsideration failed to present additional points from the arguments they made during the oral argument last Oct. 17. (JGA)
