Friday, October 12, 2007 Court stops demolition of Lapu mall
BUSINESSMAN Efrain Pelaez Jr. got a break from the court, at least for the next three days.
The Regional Trial Court (RTC) has issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) stopping the Lapu-Lapu City Government from enforcing the demolition order that it had issued on Pelaez’s mall and resort.
The order, signed by Lapu-Lapu RTC Judge Toribio Quiwag, does not mention how long the restraining order will last but, in their application, the businessman asked for 72 hours.
In the meantime, Quiwag, who presides over RTC Branch 27, will hear Pelaez’s injunction case on the merits and decide whether to make the restraining order permanent.
“This is a blow to the Radaza administration,” said Jun Monzon of the Mactan Chamber of Commerce Inc. (MICCI), which Pelaez heads.
Lawyer Richard Sison, who represented the City Government during the hearing last Tuesday, is yet to receive a copy of the ruling.
Withdrawal
Perhaps already anticipating the TRO, Pelaez yesterday withdrew a similar injunction suit he had filed against City Attorney Joseph Vincent Lim and City Administrator Teodulo Ybañez.
The withdrawal was contained in an amended complaint he submitted to the 12th Branch of the RTC in Cebu City.
Pelaez is pursuing instead the P2.2-million damages suit he earlier filed against the two City Hall officials for calling him, among other things, a tax evader.
Through his other lawyer, Joan Largo, Pelaez again narrated that the defendants issued demolition orders against his Marina and Southgate Malls and his Coral Point Resort.
He said the orders demonstrated the ill will, abuse of power and authority, malice and bad faith that the defendants have against him.
He again pointed out that the harassment began after he questioned the mayor’s 2005 purchase of personal computers through a graft complaint that alleged overpricing.
RTC Branch 12 Judge Estela Alma Singco, during the hearing, called for a ceasefire between the two camps while the case is pending.
Ceasefire
As if concurring with the request, the Lapu-Lapu City Council dropped its intent to go head to head with the officials of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) to settle which juridical agency has the authority to issue building permits within the economic zone.
Vice Mayor Mario Amores, in an interview yesterday, said the court has already taken cognizance of the suit.
Pelaez, in both his injunction and damages suits, said his malls have updated papers that include building and occupancy permits from the Peza.
He said he got his papers because his facilities are inside the Mactan Economic Zones 1 and 2.
The City Government’s demolition orders cited the lack of building, mechanical, electrical and plumbing permits for the Marina Mall in Barangay Pusok and Mactan Southgate in Barangay Basak.
A third notice of demolition was addressed to Coralpoint Development Corp. in Barangay Punta Engaño for its riprap that was constructed without a permit.
Restrained
In the two-page TRO ruling, Judge Quiwag said the businessman, through lawyer Bernardito Florido, was able to “satisfactorily explain” that there was an urgent need for a TRO and that if one is not issued, he’d incur serious damage— loss of his establishments.
City Hall was unable to show that the non-demolition of the structures endangers public safety.
Trial on the merits will begin, now that the TRO issue has been settled.
Already introduced into the records of the case are the permits that Pelaez got for his two malls and his argument that it is the zone authority, and not the local government, that issues permits and licenses to the malls because they are located within the economic zone.
Quoting the Supreme Court in its 1928 decision in the Tomas Monteverde vs. Sebastian Generoso case, Pelaez, through Florido, also argued that even without any permit, the City Government cannot simply facilitate a demolition without going to court.
For the City Government, already set on record is Sison’s argument that the permits and licenses Pelaez was able to obtain from the zone authority does not exempt it from taxes and requirements Lapu-Lapu City intends to impose.
He cited a Sept. 27, 2002 memorandum from the Bureau of Local Government Finance that says the exemptions are only for those firms that are into “export enterprises.”
Sison pointed out that Pelaez’s malls are not engaged in such a business.
In an interview after the hearing, Sison also cited a March 12, 2007 opinion, signed by Bureau of Local Government Finance executive director Ma. Presentacion Montesa and addressed to Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza, that it is the local government that issues permits and licenses to establishments within economic zones. (KNR/KNT/AIV)
