Court rules against TRO bid on P8.3B downpayment

The Cebu City government may use the P8.3 billion that it received from three developers that won the bidding for 45.2 hectares in the South Road Properties (SRP).

This came about after Judge Alexander Acosta of the Regional Trial Court Branch 9 in Cebu City denied the petition of former prosecutor Romulo Torres to stop the City Council from appropriating funds from the down payment the city government had received.

Judge Acosta’s denial of Torres’ application for a temporary restraining order (TRO) was issued in open court this morning.

“This court after evaluation of the application for a TRO, and to the fact that nothing in the petition that would show that he is wiling to post a bond, the TRO is denied,” Acosta said.

“Supersedeas” bonds are posted to compensate for damages or losses caused by the TRO should it later appear that the petitioner was not entitled to it.

Torres, who filed the suit in his capacity as a “citizen and taxpayer,” wasn’t present during the hearing on his bid for a TRO.

Acosta gave Torres’ lawyers Janice Lape and Dominic Elnan an hour to contact their client and to request the petitioner to appear in court to prove that he is a taxpayer of Cebu City.

“Despite such period of time, the petitioner failed to appear,” the judge said.

Cebu City Attorney Jerone Castillo requested the court to drop the case filed by Torres due to a flaw in its Verification and Certification of Non-Forum Shopping–a document attached to a petition to show that the parties have not filed the same case in another court.

Castillo pointed out that the Verification and Certification of Non-Forum Shopping submitted by Torres showed that the notary public, lawyer Albertino Mata Jr., was authorized to notarize the document only until Dec. 31, 2014.

Judge Acosta gave the parties until Friday this week to submit their respective position papers to the court. Torres earlier asked the court to stop the city from appropriating funds from the P8.3 billion it received from SM Prime Holdings Inc., Ayala Lands Inc., and Filinvest Lands Inc.

Mayor Rama wasn’t impleaded in the case.

Torres said the money ought not be spent nor appropriated by the city pending resolution of whether the mode of disposing the subject lots at the SRP by public bidding is valid.

He said City Ordinance No. 2332 which protects the SRP from “unlawful and unauthorized transactions and dealings” excludes the sale or disposition of property in the SRP by public auction.

Because of the case filed by Torres, the council chose to defer the approval of the city’s P2.8 billion Supplemental Budget 1 (SB1). The budget includes, among others, 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.