THE Cebu City Legal Office has started drafting the proposal for a compromise agreement between Romulo Torres and the City Government for a possible amicable settlement on the civil petition for declaratory relief that the former filed in 2015.

City Attorney Joseph Bernaldez said the development came after the City Council approved the resolution requesting Mayor Tomas Osmeña to negotiate two cases involving the lots in the South Road Properties (SRP).

Bernaldez said the court has been in favor of the decision of the parties of the case to amicably settle it to unclog their dockets.

However, Bernaldez clarified that any settlement through a compromise agreement will not be made unless there is Council approval.

Although the Council resolution authorized the mayor to negotiate two particular cases, Bernaldez said that so far, they are first working on the case Torres filed.

The resolution approved by the Council covers the request for Osmeña to negotiate the consignation that three giant developers made for the payment of the lots they purchased in the SRP and the civil petition for declaratory relief that Torres filed.

The consortium of Ayala Land Inc., Cebu Holdings Inc. and SM Prime Holdings Inc. also consigned in court the amount of P16.7 billion as payment for the lots the three developers purchased in the SRP.

In 2015, Torres filed a civil petition for declaratory relief and injunction with temporary restraining order filed by Romulo Torres in a bid to stop the Council from appropriating funds from the P8.3 billion down payment the City received from three developers that won the bidding for the SRP lots.

When the resolution was deliberated in the Council, opposition Councilor Raymond Garcia abstained from voting on its approval, saying Osmeña has no legal standing to negotiate Torres’s case.

Torres filed his civil petition against the City Council with Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella as the nominal respondent, being the presiding officer.

Asked on the matter, Bernaldez said the mayor can already negotiate by virtue of the authority given by the Council to him.

“The mayor, by virtue of that particular resolution, can negotiate now for a possible compromise of the case,” he said. (RVC)