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Saturday, October 20, 2007
Lapu mayor closes Marina mall, demolishes Pelaez causeway
By Allan I. Varquez
CEBU CITY -- The Lapu-Lapu City Government closed Friday morning a mall in Barangay Pusok that belongs to businessman Efrain Pelaez Jr. and demolished the seven-meter causeway of his Goldpoint Land Corporation in Barangay Agus.
Tension rose during the simultaneous enforcement of the closure and demolition orders issued by City Administrator Teodulo Ybañez, when security personnel and supporters of Pelaez tried to block City Hall personnel and policemen.
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Nine hours later, Pelaez’s Marina Mall reopened. And City Hall’s moves apparently failed to win public support for Mayor Arturo Radaza.
“It was a very bad move by the mayor. He projected himself as an oppressor. He should instead answer the allegedly overpriced purchase of personal computers,” said Fr. Carmelo Diola of the anti-graft group Dilaab, who came to lead a prayer-rally.
Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia condemned the closure “in the strongest possible terms” and described it as “the totally unbelievable actuations of a local chief executive.”
“This is a very bad signal to our investors who right now are very interested to come to Cebu,” the governor said.
Jurisdiction
Provincial Board Members Wenceslao Gakit and Victor Maambong, who represent the sixth district where Lapu-Lapu belongs, both questioned City Hall’s move.
“They should respect the court order,” said Gakit, referring to a temporary restraining order (TRO) that the court issued last week.
City Hall insisted their action was legal because what was restrained was the demolition of the mall, the riprapping of Pelaez’s Coralpoint Development Corporation in Barangay Punta Engaño and his Mactan Southgate Properties in Barangay Basak.
Pelaez and his lawyers thought otherwise. Pelaez is president of the Mactan Island Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and has asked the ombudsman’s office to investigate potentially anomalous transactions at City Hall—from the purchase of allegedly overpriced computers, to the alleged extortion from applicants of local government permits.
Because the mall is inside the Mactan Export Zone, officials of the Philippine Export Zone Authority (Peza) considered City Hall’s action an affront to its jurisdiction.
At 5:10 p.m., about nine hours since the mall was padlocked, lawyer Rufino San Juan, policemen from the Mactan Export Zone Authority (Meza) and a 14-man team from the Cebu Provincial Police Office arrived.
Permits
They took out the roadblocks, the nylon cord tied around the two buildings and the closure notices posted on the doors of all 80 tenants of the mall.
“Peza has the jurisdiction and will continue to assert that jurisdiction, especially on matters of permits to its locators,” San Juan told Sun.Star Cebu.
But lawyer Richard Sison, counsel for Radaza, questioned Peza’s move.
“I don’t understand why they insist on jurisdiction. What was implemented this morning was the City’s authority to issue and revoke a business permit. Pelaez had violated the conditions stipulated in the business permit, so we have to act on that particular violation. It is not Peza who issues business permits,” Sison said. “Why should they come into this situation?”
The closure was ordered after the lapse of the 10-day period for Pelaez to secure from City Hall a building permit, mechanical permit, electrical permit and plumbing permit for his mall.
The closure order said: “This establishment shall remain closed pending compliance with existing laws and ordinances of the city in order to ensure the general welfare of the people.”
No settlement
Ybañez, who personally enforced it, said City Hall does not recognize the legality of permits and variances issued by Peza.
After an argument with one of Pelaez’s lawyers, Julito Alvarez, Ybañez quipped: “Baynti ta ka tuig estambay ug tubaan. Dili ko nila madala ug intimidate, oy. (They can’t intimidate me.)”
About 10 a.m., some two hours after the closure order was enforced, lawyers of both parties met at the office of Meza Administrator Sansaluna Pinagayao, but failed to agree on a settlement.
Pelaez stayed with Pinagayao until 4 p.m.
At 5:10, San Juan arrived at the mall with a truckload of policemen and two vehicles of more law enforcers from Peza.
Pelaez’s lawyer, Bernardito Florido, said he will ask the court to hold the City Hall officials in contempt for defying the court’s TRO.
“The bottomline is to maintain the status quo, and issuing closure orders is a way of disturbing it,” Florido said.
Assistance
He said that City officials, in issuing closure orders on 80 business establishments inside the mall—which employ 1,071 workers—also “maliciously” took advantage of the Regional Trial Court judges’ absence. (They were in Manila for a seminar.)
After hearing about the closure, Governor Garcia called up Chief Superintendent Ronald Roderos, director of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7, to sort out the matter.
“I have called on Gen. Roderos to see to it that the law be upheld. I also called up Sonny (Sansaluna) Pinagayao to tell him that he has my full support and that he should not buckle down to such tyranny and outright hooliganism,” added the governor.
Pinagayao is the administrator of the Mactan Economic Zone under the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.
Transfer sought
Maambong said he will submit a resolution strongly condemning the act, which he suspects will have an effect on the Provincial Government’s efforts to attract more investors.
Pelaez, through lawyer Haide Acuña, wrote PNP Chief Avelino Razon Jr. to ask for the relief of Lapu-Lapu City Police Chief Louie Oppus and Senior Inspector Conrado Manatad, police precinct chief.
Pelaez accused the two of taking sides and questioned their failure to implement the law during the “illegal” closure of the mall and the demolition of his causeway.
Manatad served as the ground commander when the closure order was enforced.
When Peza took over, Oppus ordered Manatad, through a handheld radio, not to bar the export zone officials from reopening the mall.
Oppus told him to just take pictures of those who took the roadblocks and the closure notices down. (With OCP, JGA and KNT/Sun.Star Cebu)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Zamboanga. (October 20, 2007 issue)
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