City Hall not giving up on Carbon case

CEBU, Philippines - The Carbon Market Unit II reconstruction has faced yet another blow after the Court of Appeals (CA) favored contractor Young Builders Corporation’s petition on the recently deferred Carbon Unit II construction.

The contractor scored against the city government, an addition to a number of hurdles blocking the completion of the project.

The February 19 promulgation required the city government to pay the construction firm at least P6.3M remaining balance with an annual interest of six percent.

Once made final and executory, the interest goes up to 12 percent.

The case was filed after then Mayor Tomas Osmeña stopped the project because he did not approve of the design.

But the current city government is not waving the white flag.

City administrator lawyer Jose Mari Poblete said they will exhaust all legal means on the case.

“We must understand that in government expenditure, money claims cannot be carried right away. We need to defend that,” Poblete told reporters.

He clarified that the city government has yet to receive the official copy from the CA.

The city government has one more option to win the case, to elevate it to the Supreme Court.

Mayor Michael Rama blamed negligence of the previous administrations for failing to deal with the case.

“Sometimes cases are not well attended before and it drags up to today,” referring to the case that has passed several administrations, Rama told reporters.

The mayor said it is up to the city legal team to act on the matter but insisted that the city will not pay for “something that we have not even seen.”

“The most important thing is to let that building stand and no legal (sic) should stop it. If they stop it, then I will be their enemy,” Rama added. (FREEMAN)