Judge asked to inhibit from Harbour Center case

MANILA, Philippines - A Manila judge was asked yesterday to inhibit from the case involving a dispute between two business groups over the control and management of the Manila Harbour Center (MHC).

Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 24 Judge Lyliha Abella-Aquino was asked to refrain from further handling the legal tussle between Manila Harbour Center Industrial Park Association Inc. (MHCIPA) and R-II Builders and Manila Harbour Center Development and Management Corp. (MHCDMC) after allowing the former to proceed with its takeover of MHC last week.

Crescencio Nombres Jr., representative of R-II Builders and MHCDMC, filed Wednesday a 10-page motion for voluntary inhibition. He accused the judge of seeming “to aid the defendants in their harassment drive.”

Aquino earlier ordered R-II, developer of the Smokey Mountain Development and Rehabilitation Project (SMDRP), to immediately turn over the control and management of the 79-hectare MHC to business locators operating in the area.

The order, which was promulgated last Oct. 19 but was served last Nov. 9, junked R-II’s motion to quash the writ of execution it issued in favor of the MHCIPA.

Nombres alleged that Aquino showed her apparent bias when she penned and issued a series of orders served less than a day apart from each other, all pushing to enforce the turnover of the MHC to the MHCIPA.