No deal reached in BDO-Cebu City govt. talks

The legal teams of Banco de Oro (BDO) and the Cebu City government failed to reach an agreement during a court chamber conference hearing on Tuesday.

This means that the court mandated status quo order, which prevents the Cebu City government from taking action against BDO, will stay until March 28.

Lawyer Alvin Go, representing BDO, said that efforts have been exerted to come up with an agreement, but it was unsuccessful, pointing out Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s “seeming” stand on the issue.

“The judge has been exerting efforts to come up with an agreement, but it seems that the mayor is adamant,” said Go about the failure of the talks held at the office of Judge Gilbert Moises of the Regional Trial Court Branch 18.

The talks were held after the RTC issued a 72-hour temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing Mayor Osmeña from closing the Magallanes branch of BDO Unibank.

The TRO stemmed from the complaint filed by Osmeña against the Magallanes branch of BDO for alleged tax fraud.

The TRO was later extended with the court encouraging both parties to settle the matter amicably, which led to this court chamber conference hearing.

Go said during the talks yesterday that they had already submitted the necessary documents that the city government asked from them.

“They have been asking for requirements, additional requirements relative to our application for business permit. Despite our position that we believe that those are not necessary, we submitted all of them and yet, they have not been acting on our applications since the mayor has been very adamant and we are open to any, whatever flexible terms,” Go said.

He also said that the city government’s legal team has also submitted the pending issue on BDO’s initial prayer for preliminary injunction for resolution.

Go also said that they would file a supplemental pleading relative to petition for a writ of preliminary injunction of a circular issued by the Department of Finance that is relevant to the issue at hand.

Joseph Bernaldez, Cebu City Legal officer, however, denied Go’s claim that they had not acted on the additional documents submitted by BDO.

Bernaldez said that they only received the documents last Friday and they were still evaluating them.

He said that they would wait for the resolution of the court once the March 28 status-quo order would be up.