THE Cebu City Government marched into the baseport of the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) and installed rail fences to block the entrance to the latter’s port extension project on Monday, April 1, 2024.
A member of the Prevention, Restoration, Order, Beautification and Enhancement (Probe) team cut the padlock of the CPA’s gate to allow city officials led by City Administrator Collin Rosell to enforce the notice of illegal construction and work stoppage order issued by the Office of the Building Official (OBO).
This, after Mayor Michael Rama learned that construction had resumed, prompting him to order Cebu City Police Office personnel to report to the area.
“Let all the police convene now at CPA (Cebu Port Authority). Leave all stations with people,” Rama said in a press conference on Monday.
Right before noon, around 15 police personnel, including a Special Weapons and Tactics team, convened in front of the Compania Maritima.
Their job was to monitor the port extension project.
When asked about the purpose of having police in the vicinity, Rama said “to wait.”
“Let’s see who is the authority,” he said.
Past 3 p.m., Cebu City Transportation Office personnel headed by Raquel Arce and personnel from the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office headed by Harold Alcontin, along with the Probe team, cleared the area and installed rail fences, while around 60 police personnel waited in the vicinity.
Arce and Alcontin were accompanied by City Legal Officer Carlo Vincent Gimena and OBO head architect Florante Catalan.
During the clearing operations, construction workers were asked to vacate their makeshift quarters, as the City ordered these demolished.
Maj. Efren Diaz, chief of the Waterfront Police Station, said they were there to maintain peace and order.
Clarification
Diaz also clarified that they were not taking sides. He said their superiors ordered them deployed for police visibility.
Rosell, in a separate interview, said the CPA did not respect the City Government’s order.
City Legal Officer Carlo Vincent Gimena said continuing with the construction was a direct defiance of the order.
CPA public information officer Mary Knoll Lague-Bolasa, in a chat message to SunStar Cebu, said they had yet to issue an official statement on the matter.
Bolasa reiterated CPA’s previous statement that the port extension project is not within the territorial jurisdiction of the Cebu City OBO.
But Gimena, in a previous interview, said the CPA is not authorized to construct without permits despite claims that its charter grants it the ability to license, control, regulate and supervise any construction within its port district.
Gimena said the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) did not grant the CPA that authority.
The CPA, for its part, maintained that it is “undoubtedly beyond the bounds of authority granted to the City’s building official as provided in Section 207 of Presidential Decree (PD) 1096, or the National Building Code of the Philippines.”
Timeline
Bolasa also cited Section 6 of the CPA’s Charter, or Republic Act (RA) 7621, saying the CPA is not under the PPA.
Section 6 of RA 7621 states that “the territorial jurisdiction of CPA includes all seas, lakes, rivers, and all other navigable inland waterways within the Province of Cebu, including waterways within the City of Cebu and all other highly urbanized cities which may hereafter be created therein.”
Last Feb. 2, OBO issued 15 notices of violation to the CPA for buildings and structures before issuing the notice of illegal construction and stoppage order three days later.
On March 8, the City installed a biofence in the water to prevent the construction from continuing.
On March 15, the City filed criminal cases against the CPA before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas for constructing a wharf without the necessary building permit.
The respondents were Glenn Castillo, the former general manager of the CPA, and Francisco Comendador III, the current general manager.
They were charged with 18 counts of violation of Section 3(e) of RA 3019, Usurpation of Authority under Article 177 of the Revised Penal Code, and violation of Section 301 in relation to Section 213 of PD 1096, as well as administrative cases for grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service. / AML, WBS