5 days to tell court: Compel Osmeña to explain his no-show

Regional Trial Court Branch 10 Judge Soliver Peras is giving plaintiff-intervenor Gloria Dalawampu five days starting yesterday to ask the court to direct Mayor Tomas Osmeña to explain on his non-appearance during the June 20 hearing of the case filed against him. This was after Osmeña failed to show at the hearing on the case filed by lawyer Alfredo Sipalay against the city government over the closure of the South Coastal Road.

Osmeña's counsels said the mayor did not attend the hearing, which was scheduled at 3 p.m., since he attended the burial of former Metrodiscom commander Zosimo Angan Jr. But Sipalay obtained a certification from the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes revealing that the burial was scheduled at 10 in the morning. Sipalay was supposed to move to cite Osmeña for direct contempt, but Peras did not give him a chance because it was Dalawampu, a lawyer, who asked for Osmeña's presence before the court.

Prior to the hearing yesterday, defense counsels Rodolfo Golez and Joseph Bernaldez filed a motion to dismiss Sipalay's complaint because it "cannot qualify as a taxpayers suit contrary to his contention which he believed to be infallibly true." Sipalay filed the case as a taxpayer. The motion also said that since Dalawampu failed to present the resolution of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Cebu City Chapter, the complaint filed by the IBP "must be dismissed as it is not properly represented."

Meanwhile, Osmeña will soon publicly announce the income tax remittances of the IBP-Cebu City chapter officials to show whether they have the right to sue the city government over the closure of the SCR. The mayor denied that he intentionally ignored a court subpoena for him to appear at the hearing and clarify the SCR closure.

The mayor also explained that his non-appearance at the hearing "was an honest mistake" to think that Angan's burial was set at 3 p.m., adding that he even stayed at City Hall until past 12 noon on that day and only left after his regular news conference.

He said his schedule showed the burial rites was at 3 p.m. so he asked his lawyer to represent him during the hearing.