Caloocan council declares judge persona non grata

MANILA, Philippines - The Caloocan City Council declared a judge persona non grata last Friday for issuing a warrant for their arrest in connection with a land dispute involving the city government and a private firm.

Voting 13-0 in a session that ended at past 8 p.m. Friday,  District 1 Councilors Aurora Henson, Karina Teh, Dean Asistio, Susan Punzalan, Marilou Nubla and Jay Afrika; District 2 Councilors Carol Cunanan, Rose Mercado, Roberto Samson, Chito Abel, Tolentino Bagus, Allen Aruelo and Liga ng mga Barangay chairman Dale Malapitan passed Resolution 2280, saying Caloocan Regional Trial Court Branch 125  Judge Dionisio Sison committed acts “inimical to the best interest of the city government and causing irreparable damage to the integrity and reputation” of the city council’s members.

Sison issued a warrant against the entire council last October because of their failure to appropriate funds for a property acquired by the city government for P47 million in 1996 for a socialized housing project.

The councilors, in their resolution, said Sison made it appear that they were remiss in the performance of their duties and painted the city government as running away from its obligations.

Based on documents obtained by The STAR, the city government under then mayor Rey Malonzo appropriated a 6,901-square meter lot in Maypajo registered under Recom Realty Corp. in 1996.

The council has deferred complying with the order due to a case pending with the Court of Appeals (CA), wherein the council contested the computation of the amount that should be paid to the landowner.

A writ of possession was issued by the court on Aug. 25, 1998 after the city government made an initial payment of P2.4 million.

The problem started when Judge Modesto Juanson issued an order fixing the just compensation at P7,208 per square meter on June 23, 2003. He subsequently issued an order of expropriation on Dec. 22, 2003 in favor of the city government after payment of just compensation amounting to P49,735,200.

On Feb. 2, 2004, the city government filed a notice of appeal, arguing, among others, “that the method adopted in the determination of the appraised value of the property should have been used as the basis in the just compensation and not the judge’s method.”

Sison, who is set to retire today, took over the case in 2009.

The ensuing legal battle resulted in two more cases in 2013, including a direct contempt against members of the city council for non-payment of the principal and interest totaling P134,600,041.13.

The city council insisted that the computation of interest should not be compounded. Michael Arthur Camina, city legal officer, said the city government should pay only P101,811,105.17 as of Oct. 21, 2014.

Bad timing

Vice Mayor Macario Asistio III said Sison’s order to pay the landowner and his showing of undue interest in the case pending at the CA is questionable. 

“The timing of his acts of pressuring the council to appropriate money for the land, which is contrary to discretion and sound judgment of the council, at a time he is about to retire and the decision not yet final and executory is a suspect and open to scrutiny,” Asistio told The STAR.

He said most, if not all of the councilors, were still students when the dispute arose but they have diligently find ways to settle the city’s obligation “but not in this manner.”