Cebu court ousts Estrada nominee to port body

CEBU CITY — The reversals of President Estrada never seem to end.

This time the President got a stinging rebuff from the Regional Trial Court here which nullified his appointment of Cerecio Mapula as commissioner of the Cebu Port Authority (CPA), supposedly representing the cargo handling-labor sector.

RTC Judge Benigno Gaviola, in a decision handed down on Jan. 3 but which was made available to media only the other day, said Mapula was not a true representative of the sector.

Gaviola ordered Mapula to immediately desist from performing functions as CPA commissioner.

He directed Transportation and Communications Secretary Vicente Rivera to recommend or endorse for appointment as Mapula’s replacement somebody who actually belongs to or is affiliated with the cargo handling-labor sector.

Mapula refused to comment on the court decision, saying he has yet to receive a copy of the order and that any statement he makes now will be premature.

The CPA similarly declined to comment, saying it will wait for feedback from the Office of the Solicitor General, which is handling the case.

The case against Mapula was filed by the Associated Labor Unions and the National Union of Port Workers in the Philippines which questioned the validity and legality of his appointment as CPA commissioner representing the cargo handling-labor sector.

The petitioners argued that Mapula did not belong to nor was affiliated with the sector he was supposed to represent in the CPA board prior to, during and even after his appointment by Mr. Estrada.

Mapula tried to fight the case by arguing that the case of prohibition the petitioners had filed was not the proper remedy in matters involving the disqualification of a public official because only the government, through the Office of the Solicitor General, could do this.

He said the petitioners had no cause of action because they were not nominees to the position. He accused them of forum-shopping.

Rivera, named co-respondent in the case, himself asserted that the petitioners had no cause of action against him because he was not the real party in interest because he had no appointing authority over the CPA.

In resolving the case, the court cited a Supreme Court ruling in the case of Carlito Ganzon, et al vs Eliodoro Guinto, the presiding RTC judge of Angeles City, wherein the appointment of one Antonio Gomez was declared null and void because he was not qualified to represent the agriculture sector, he being engaged in the trade of repairing airconditioning units.

Gaviola ruled that Mapula could not truly represent the cargo handling sector because he does not belong to it.

The court added that the matter of exhaustion of administrative remedies does not apply to this case because the questions involved in the petition are purely legal.

The Office of the Government Corporate Counsel, on June 1, 2000, issued Opinion 114, saying that the CPA charter specifically requires the commissioners to represent the cargo handling, shipping, labor and business sectors.

Government corporate counsel Alan Roullo Yap said in Opinion 114, that "there is the necessity of maintaining the connection and/or association with the specific sector the commissioners are respectively representing."

The court decision has triggered legal questions as to whether the RTC can declare a presidential appointment null and void, or not.

Pedro Rosito, president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu City chapter, tried to provide answers, saying the court has been given the power to declare any law, resolution or contract null and void.

This power, as embodied in the Constitution, is given to the Supreme Court and to the RTCs, he said. — Freeman News Service