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Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Arroyo steps in Lapu dispute
CEBU CITY -- Malacañang asked Cerge Remonde to find ways to resolve worsening feud between Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza and businessman Efrain Pelaez Jr.
Remonde, Presidential Management Staff head and concurrent Cabinet officer for regional development for the Visayas, will be in Cebu Wednesday.
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wants him to talk with the people involved in the conflict, including officials of Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza).
“It is not really my mission because I will be in Cebu as a guest of a convention. But being a Cabinet officer for regional development, the President also asked me to talk with the conflicting parties in Lapu-Lapu City,” he told Sun.Star Cebu in a mobile phone interview Monday.
He said the feud between Radaza and Pelaez has reached the attention of the President because many Cebuanos have called her up expressing concerns on the effect of the conflict on Lapu-Lapu City.
The hostility began after Pelaez accused the Radaza administration of corruption. He also filed a graft complaint against City Hall officials, including the mayor, for the alleged overpriced purchase of P23 million worth of personal computers, which he said could have been bought at half the price.
In reaction, the City Government accused Pelaez of being a tax evader and failing to secure required documents to do business in Lapu-Lapu.
City Hall closed the mall after the lapse of the 10-day period for Pelaez to secure a building permit, mechanical permit, electrical permit and plumbing permit for his establishment.
The mall was reopened after Peza asserted its territorial jurisdiction over the establishment, which lies within the Mactan Economic Zone in Barangay Pusok.
The Cebu Provincial Board (PB) Monday condemned, in a resolution, the closure of the Marina Mall from about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. last Friday.
The board reminded the local chief executive and the city administrator of Lapu-Lapu to act with prudence and respect for the rule of law.
The resolution was sponsored by sixth district PB Member Victor Maambong and co-sponsored by PB Members Wenceslao Gakit, also of the sixth district, and Juan Bolo of the first district.
“The City Government could have treated the present controversy with prudence and observed proper procedures in enforcing its authority, instead of resorting to outright closure of the business establishment that resulted in irreparable injury to the business and to its hundreds of employees,” the resolution read.
As this developed, Pelaez, through his lawyer Bernardito Florido, filed Monday a petition for indirect contempt against Mayor Radaza, City Attorney Vincent Joseph Lim, City Administrator Teodulo Ybañez and two other lawyers for last Friday’s closure of the Marina Mall.
“The purpose of the temporary restraining order is to preserve the status quo. But the City did not honor it,” Florido said in a phone interview.
He refused to talk further about the issue on the advice of a judge.
Lapu-Lapu City Regional Trial Court Judge Toribio Quiwag has issued a temporary restraining order against the demolition of the mall and other Pelaez properties, which the City Government said lack permits.
The City Council, meanwhile, requested Ybañez, Lim and a representative from the mayor’s office to give details of what happened last Friday and the basis for the closure order on Marina Mall.
The council will hold a special session Tuesday.
“Our (request) is in aid of legislation. This is not a fact-finding investigation. We will do a special session to give the people from the mayor’s office a chance to detail all their arguments. Because if they reply to the media, the other party will also react, and this will just turn into a word war,” Vice Mayor Mario Amores said.
Amores wanted to hold a special session Monday, but he was told by majority of the councilors that a special session can only be called by the mayor or by a majority vote of the council members.
The closure of the mall last Friday drew Peza into the controversy.
Lawyer Rufino San Juan, department manager for operation of the Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ), said locators cannot be compelled by the Lapu-Lapu City Government to obtain a building permit and variances from City Hall because that authority is granted solely to Peza.
He said the power of City Hall at MEZ is only up to issuing a business permit after a company secures the building permit and variances from Peza.
“Our companies are under a special arrangement because legal requirements for their existence are obtained from the constitutional bodies. But it should be made clear that the authority of the City and Peza cannot be intertwined,” San Juan said a talk.
From the inception of the Export Processing Zone Authority through Presidential Decree 66 until the decree was amended through Republic Act 7916, San Juan said the authority to issue a building permit and variances to companies at the economic zone has never been surrendered to local government units.
“It is the very reason why we have our own Office of the Building Office (OBO), which is a counterpart of the City’s OBO,” he said.
The Provincial Board also did not agree with City Hall’s move.
In sponsoring the resolution, Maambong said the City Government should have been “gentleman” enough to write Pelaez to warn him of an impending closure.
Maambong called the closure of Marina Mall a “German blitzkrieg.”
The same resolution stated that public officials should put “public service above personal aggrandizement and benefit at all times.”
PB members fear that the closure will jeopardize Cebu’s business climate and growing investments.
Copies of the resolution will be given to Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, Lapu-Lapu City officials, MEZ administrators, Ybañez and Pelaez.
Policemen were deployed to the Marina Mall when City Hall implemented the closure order.
But Lapu-Lapu City Police Chief Louie Oppus denied arrests were made during the nine-hour standoff at the mall last Friday.
In his official report to the Police Regional Office (PRO)-Central Visayas, Oppus said they did not participate in the implementation of the closure order.
PRO Chief of Staff Arnulfo Perez told reporters that they received a copy of Pelaez’s letter addressed to PNP Chief Avelino Razon Jr. seeking Oppus’ and Senior Inspector Conrado Manatad’s relief, but it is up to Razon to decide.
Pelaez accused the two officers of siding with Mayor Radaza by arresting mall guards, mall tenants and his supporters, arresting civilian personnel of Goldpoint Land Corporation who were guarding his property in Barangay Agus and putting up the barricades and implementing road closures surrounding the mall.
Perez said police presence during the standoff was needed to make sure trouble would not erupt.
He said Oppus would have been liable for not performing his duty if he did not send police officers to the mall.
Perez said he talked with Oppus, who told him that his men did not make any arrests or assist City Hall workers.
“He was just doing his job. They did not do the closing, it was the City Government of Lapu-Lapu,” Perez said.
He lamented that police officers often find themselves caught in between opposing parties in such situations. (AIV/MBG/MEA/Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Baguio. (October 23, 2007 issue)
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