P20M case v. South Road Properties critic
By Katrina N. Tabanao
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
MAYOR Tomas Osmeña and the Cebu City Council are getting back at Tinago Barangay Captain Joel Garganera, as they countered with a P20-million damage suit for the taxpayer’s case he filed concerning the South Road Properties (SRP).
This way, the City Hall officials said, other people will be discouraged from filing any “unwarranted and malicious” suits against the Cebu City Government related to the 240-hectare SRP.
Last March 26, Garganera asked the Regional Trial Court to stop Osmeña, the council, the Cebu Investment Promotions Center, and the Register of Deeds from marketing, selling, disposing of or leasing the SRP.
He alleged that such moves are illegal since the presidential proclamation transferring ownership of the SRP to the City Government has no congressional authority.
City Hall’s countercharge was included in its opposition to Garganera’s application for the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order (TRO).
Osmeña, through Acting City Attorney Rodolfo Golez, said Garganera must be compelled to pay P20 million in exemplary damages “because even if he knew very well from the start of the infirmity of his cause of action against the respondents, he still had the gall and temerity to file the unwarranted suit.”
This caused bad publicity for the SRP, which would result in turning off investors who may have been or are interested to purchase portions of the SRP, the city officials said.
“His acts amount to putting the Cebu City Government in a bad light before the international community, thereby causing losses in projected income for the City,” read their reply.
The City objected to Garganera’s application for a TRO and a writ of preliminary injunction, saying the issuance of such will be improper as it lacked requisites.
“Any restraining order or injunction against any portion of the SRP will completely eliminate the financial viability of the SRP and will certainly have far reaching consequences on the economic development and interest of the City in particular and the country in general,” the City’s reply said.
Garganera, in his complaint, said the SRP is classified as lands of the public domain, which means that it is owned by the state.
He cited the Supreme Court decision in Laurel vs. Garcia, which declared that “it is not for the President to convey real property of the government on his or her own sole will.”
City Hall lawyers, for their part, argued that if this is the case, then President Arroyo should be impleaded in the case because Garganera is questioning the acts of Arroyo, who issued Proclamation 843 that transferred the ownership of the SRP to the City Government.
Garganera also earlier said that the City’s lease agreement with Bigfoot Entertainment Inc. for two hectares of the SRP for a period of 25 years is illegal because it lacks public bidding.
But the mayor warned that he will hold the National Government responsible if transactions for the SRP are put on hold as a result of the special civil case against the City.
Osmeña said the Cebuanos may not know it but nearly half of the City’s loan payments for the SRP are considered income generated by the National Government.
As a guarantor for the 12.315-billion yen loan the City Government made, the National Government gets some P200 million a year from the City’s loan payment.
The mayor said, “If there’s no authorization to transfer ownership and the Philippine Government does not give the SRP to us, they are in violation of the bilateral agreement between the Philippine and Japanese Governments and that’s very, very bad.”
Only 2.7 percent of the total interest rate for the loan goes to the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and another two percent goes to the Land Bank of the Philippines, the conduit for the loan.
Bigfoot is leasing two-hectare of the SRP in the next 25 years at P5 million a year.
Also, the City is negotiating with other interested SRP locators such as SM Prime Holdings and Filinvest.