CEBU City Hall is not backing down in its fight over the Compania Maritima area and has elevated the case over the disputed property to the Court of Appeals, four months after Judge Soliver Peras of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 10 in Cebu City penned the RTC's decision granting the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) possession of the property.
The Cebu City Legal Office (CLO), last April 5, filed a 57-page petition before the CA seeking the reversal of the RTC's ruling, by citing a nearly five-decade-old executive order that it said established the Customs Zone of the Cebu port as not including the disputed area.
City Legal Officer Jerone Castillo, in an interview Friday, April 14, 2023, said the City decided to elevate the pleadings to the CA after its motion for reconsideration was denied last February.
The petitioners are Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and Acting City Assessor Eustaquio Cesa, while respondents are Peras, the presiding judge of RTC Branch 10, and the Republic of the Philippines represented by the CPA.
The CLO filed a petition for certiorari and prayed for the annulment of the December 2022 ruling that granted the writ of preliminary injunction to the CPA. The CLO also petitioned the CA to overrule the trial court's Feb. 6, 2023 ruling that denied City Hall's motion for reconsideration and supplemental motion for reconsideration, and to lift the writ of preliminary injunction.
On Dec. 23, 2022, in a 15-page decision penned by Peras, the court granted the CPA's application for a writ of preliminary injunction to prohibit the Cebu City Government from occupying any portion of the Compania Maritima area.
No clear right
The City argues that the CPA has "no clear and unmistakable right" to be protected since the disputed Compania Maritima area is not part of the port district of Cebu as stated in Executive Order 448 dated Feb. 5, 1975 which established the Customs Zone for the port of Cebu containing an area of 93,321 square meters.
The City, in its petition, alleged that there was an unauthorized survey by a private geodetic engineer hired by the CPA in 2009 which made the size of the port district area balloon to 119,570 square meters, and the Compania Maritima area, "a tract of land without any ships docking at the area, no port operations conducted by the CPA," was included in the survey.
The City insisted that "there is no material and substantial invasion of a right" since the Compania Maritima area "is not part of the port district."
The City also stated that the area has "long been converted to a lot" and there are no longer ships docking in front of and on the right side of the Maritima building, so construction activity conducted in the disputed area "does not hamper any port operations and does not constitute material and substantial invasion."
Can't stop project
The construction of the Puso Village was ongoing as part of the January 2021 joint venture agreement (JVA) between the City and Megawide Construction Corp. for the redevelopment of the Carbon Public Market, but abruptly stopped when the writ was issued.
The City pointed out that the writ of preliminary injunction issued by the trial court against the construction of the Puso Village and other related activities in the disputed area is contrary to Republic Act 8975, which prohibits trial courts from issuing any temporary retraining orders and writs of injunctions against government infrastructure projects.
The City added that a preliminary injunction is supposed to "maintain the status quo until the merits of the case are fully heard."
But the Puso Village was built in an area that had already been "under the actual possession and occupation" of the City since the CPA first sued City Hall in 2015 over the property, so the writ directing the City to restore and maintain the Republic and CPA's possession and occupation of the whole Compania Maritima area was "irregularly issued in violation of the status quo."
Don't challenge City
Rama, in an interview with reporters on Wednesday, April 12, warned the CPA not to challenge the authority of the City, after learning that City Hall personnel who were cleaning the walkways in the South Road Properties were instructed to stop by port security personnel guarding the area.
The CPA, in an official statement released on Thursday, April 13, said they are not challenging the City's authority but only maintaining possession of the property by virtue of the writ of preliminary injunction granted to them by the court.
"We are not challenging the authority of the Cebu City Government. We are only protecting our right within the bounds of the law," according to the CPA.
"Therefore, any activities to be conducted or implemented within the property should be with prior notice or approval from CPA," CPA said in its official statement.
However, Rama said he has the responsibility to maintain the cleanliness of the city as the mayor.
"Suko ko kay ang usa ka mayor naay responsibility. Kung di mo kalimpyo sa inyong hugaw, ako'y mulimpyo," he said.
(I'm angry because a mayor has the responsibility. If you cannot clean your dirty premises, I will do it.)
The CPA, in its statement, assured the public that it is doing its best to maintain order and cleanliness within the Maritima property.
Tax declaration
The contested parcel of land is located across Cebu City Hall.
In July 2013, the City Government started claiming ownership of Compania Maritima by acquiring a tax declaration certificate for the property.
On July 7, 2015, the National Government, with CPA as representative, sued City Hall, asking the Regional Trial Court to stop the City Government from excercising acts of ownership over the property, and to declare its tax declaration void.