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Sunday, September 14, 2003
Laguna industrial estate land dispute heats up
MANILA -- Lawyers of the country's first industrial estate have asked the Supreme Court (SC) to disallow a motion by the government seeking to award a portion of a 254.76 estate in Cabuyao, Laguna to land reform grantees.
In a forty-page memorandum, lawyers of the Sta. Rosa Realty Development Corp. (SRRDC) urged the high court to cite in contempt the claimants to a portion of the property led by a certain Juan Amante, whose claim to portions of the property has been backed by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
The claimants are asking the SC to be allowed to file a "second motion for reconsideration," a prohibited pleading under court rules.
SRRDC was formed 55 years ago by its founder, the late Chief Justice and House Speaker Jose Yulo Sr., who bought the former Canlubang Sugar Estate from businessman Vicente Madrigal on December 29, 1948.
A watershed portion of the estate where roughly 600,000 bankal and coconut trees were planted is being claimed by the adverse party, who obtained a favorable ruling from the DAR under the government's Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
The firm claims the original SC ruling on the matter dated October 12, 2001 can no longer be questioned after a second motion for reconsideration was turned down by the SC on November 20 of that year.
The claimants to the property, despite the SC ruling, say the matter should be taken up in a full court hearing.
The land case came into prominence after it reached the House of Representatives, which in turn summoned magistrates of the SC to explain the SC ruling. Appearing before congress, SC Court Administrator Carlos De Leon insisted the ruling in favor of SRRDC was proper.
During the ensuing drama, the claimants said the magistrate who penned the ruling, retired associate justice Bernardo Pardo, was seen in Laguna inspecting the disputed site with Jose Luis Yulo, an event Pardo denied.
"(The meeting between Pardo and Yulo is) obviously false, freshly manufactured and incredible on its face. The alleged sighting occurred on December 1, 2003 while the motion for reconsideration was filed two months later on February 2," SRRDC's lawyers said.
"Private respondents (claimants) grabbed titles to obtain Certificates of Land Awards (CLA) under the CARP," SRRDC's lawyers said in their plea, claiming that "DAR committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction which was improperly sustained by the Court of Appeals (CA)."
(September 14, 2003 issue)
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