To help residents of Apas: Tomas files suit vs. Gwen, others

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Government and the residents of Barangay Apas, who fear dislocation following the reversion of the ownership of the 80-hectare military reservation to the Province of Cebu, yesterday filed a civil case for judicial review and injunction against Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, Vice President Noli De Castro and Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, Jr.

The city government represented by Mayor Tomas Osmeña, Apas Barangay Captain Ramil Ayuman and Maria Linda Paracuelles, president of the Alliance of Barangay Apas Community Association, asked the court to declare the memorandum of agreement and other undertakings entered into between Garcia and the national officials for the recovery of the previously donated lot as null and void and unconstitutional.

Also named respondents in the civil case are Gavino Figuracion, local project manager of the National Housing Authority, Fernando Garso, regional director of the Housing Urban Development Coordinating Council and Chloe Osano, regional director of the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor. 

The complainants prayed for the court to issue a preliminary and prohibitory injunction as well as temporary restraining order to prevent the provincial government from executing the MOA it recently signed with Teodoro for the implementation of the presidential memorandum that ordered the relocation of the Central Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The 138-page complaint did not only dwell on the recovery of the Centcom lot in Barangay Apas, it also included the other properties that the provincial government wanted to recover such as the Cebu Zoo and the impending eviction of national government offices that occupies provincial lots in Cebu City.

The City Government of Cebu is forced to raise before the court what it described as “oppressive and arbitrary” efforts of the province to pursue its so-called “patrimonial interests,” because it is reportedly affecting its own development plans and has become detrimental to the interests of its constituents.

According to the city government, the Capitol officials’ move to recover its friar lands and converting it into “large scale commercial ventures” other than its intended purpose which is for public service and use as provided for under the Friar Land Act is illegal.

“This has caused havoc on the well ordered scheme of things within the city and as laid down in the city government’s development plans, to the extreme detriment of the latter,” a portion of the complaint read.

It added that, “The provincial government has taken over the development plan of Cebu City, interfered with the residential tenure of the constituents of urban communities within the city and has effectively deprived offices of national agencies an opportunity at having permanent homes in the capital.”

The city government cited the move of the province to have the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority offices evicted from its present location in barangay Lahug. According to the complainants, it is also questionable to have the AFP Central Command transferred to the Mactan Benito Ebuen Air Base with the province replicating all its facilities, because the armed forces had never asked for its transfer.

It is the complainants’ prayer for the court to enjoin the province from using friar lands for commercial purposes in accordance with the city ordinance No. 2193, which declared that all lands acquired through the Friar Land Act shall be used solely for its intended purpose as provided for under the said law.

The city government believes that the Capitol’s real purpose in recovering the military reservation is for its planned Ciudad project, which it also sought to be enjoined by the court. 

The Centcom, according to the complainants, should remain in Camp Lapu-Lapu as it is the most strategically located camp for tactical and operational purposes.  

The complainants moved that the court declared the MOA and MOU including the presidential proclamation that allows the transfer of the military facility and the reversion of ownership of the lot it presently occupies to the province be declared null and void. —/NLQ (THE FREEMAN)