Court asked to dismiss petition against SRP lot payments
CEBU City Hall’s legal office asked the Regional Trial Court (RTC) to dismiss the case filed against the City Council over the sale of the two lots in the South Road Properties (SRP) last October 5.
In their motion to dismiss, the City Legal Office cited six reasons why the petition for declaratory relief filed by lawyer Romulo Torres should be dismissed outright by the court.
City Legal Officer Jerone Castillo and City lawyer Mary Rose Salvatierra said Torres’s petition doesn’t state a cause of action and he has no legal standing to file the petition.
They argued that the petition isn’t the remedy for the validity of last year’s council resolution authorizing the mayor to sell the SRP lots through public bidding.
They also said Torres failed to notify the solicitor general and implead an indispensable party and that there’s no basis to issue a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) or Writ of Preliminary Injunction or (WPI).
Preferred mode
“The instant petition is nothing but a malicious and groundless lawsuit with no other purpose but to harass herein respondent, the Cebu City government, its officials and employees as well as its constituents,” the City Legal Office said.
Torres, a former asst. prosecutor of Cebu City who was dismissed from service in 1993, earlier filed a taxpayer’s suit against the City Council.
He asked the court to prohibit the city government from using the P8.3 billion down payment it received from selling the two SRP lots.
He said the 2014 resolution violated City Ordinance No. 2332 that was passed in 2012.
The ordinance stated that the preferred mode of disposal for the lots should be through unsolicited proposal.
But the lawyers said section 3 of the same city ordinance 2332 allows the sale of the SRP lots through public bidding as long as there is specific approval from the city council.
“The instant petition is also a calculated move to impede the development of the SRP and disrupt the distribution of basic services to the constituents of the City of Cebu,” they said.
Because of the case, the City Council decided to defer the approval of the city’s P2.8 billion Supplemental Budget 1 (SB1).
The budget includes the P2.4 billion prepayment of the SRP loan, P77 million for City Hall employees’ Productivity Enhancement Incentive (PEI) and P87 million for garbage tipping fees, among others.
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