Judge urged not to withdraw from SRP payment case

FORMER prosecutor Romulo Torres is asking Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 23 Judge Generosa Labra to reconsider her refusal to hear the case he filed against the Cebu City Council on the sale of the South Road Properties (SRP) lots.

Torres also asked the court to deny the council’s motion to dismiss the case.

In an urgent motion for reconsideration filed by Torres’s lawyer Janice Lape last Oct. 16, Torres said personal affiliation alone is not enough for Labra to inhibit from the case.

“Petitioner, as a taxpayer, limits his participation on established facts and existing documents,” Lape said. Two weeks ago, Labra inhibited from hearing the case, saying Torres is a “close friend.”

The case was then raffled to RTC Branch 9 Judge Alexander Acosta who denied Torres’s request for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) or Writ of Preliminary Injunction (WPI) in a hearing last week.

There will be another hearing to decide on the motion to dismiss filed by the City Legal Office and Councilor Gerardo Carillo.

Aside from his motion for reconsideration on Labra’s inhibition, Torres also submitted a position paper opposing the motion to dismiss filed by the Cebu City government.

Lape argued that the case is groundless and malicious. She said its sole purpose is to put to test the validity of the mode of disposal of the SRP lots.

“It is not designed to impede the development of the SRP but to see to it that its development is in consonance with all existing city ordinance,” Lape said.

She said there is a conflict between Cebu City Ordinance No. 2332 and the 2014 council resolution authorizing the mayor to sell the SRP lots through public bidding.

Lape said based on the whereas clauses of the ordinance, the city’s local development plan “does not include the sale or disposition of property in the South Road Properties whether by public auction or otherwise.”

She said the City Council’s suspension of the deliberation of the proposed Supplemental Budget 1 (SB1) also shows that there is a conflict between the existing ordinance and last year’s resolution.

If the P8.3 billion down payment will be appropriated and spent, Lape said the city government won’t be able to return the payment if the sale is voided, and it will put Cebu City in debt.