By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent .
THE See family-owned Mega Integrated Agro-Livestock Farm Corp. yesterday dismissed the prospects of a city hall takeover of the market and terminal management in Lapasan, saying the threat was a result of a councilor’s wrong understanding of a Supreme Court decision.
Speaking on behalf of Mega Farm, former vice mayor and lawyer Antonio Soriano said Councilor Teodulfo Lao Jr. made a big mistake when he interpreted the SC ruling as a nullification of the firm’s contract with city hall.
The contract, signed when lawyer Constantino Jaraula was mayor, allowed Mega Farm to give city hall’s Agora property a facelift in exchange for a right to manage the public facilities for 25 years.
Soriano said there was nothing in the 20-page SC decision that voided the city hall-Mega Farm build-operate-transfer scheme contract contrary to Lao’s claims.
He said while it is correct that Lao’s group sought to nullify the controversial contract, the SC ruling was about another matter.
“Bo-ot pasabot nga dili pa makuha sa city hall ang operation and management sa Agora ug bus terminal sa Lapasan,” Soriano said.
What the SC did, according to Soriano, was to merely send back the petition for nullification filed by councilors Lao, Zaldy Ocon, Enrico Salcedo, and ex-councilor Roger Abaday to the court of origin, in this case the 17th branch of the Regional Trial Court here under Judge Flor Abbu.
Soriano said it simply means that the regional court would hear the case back all over again.
“Back to square one,” he said.
Before the regional court, he said, Lao and his group would need to prove their allegation that the city hall-Mega Farm contract was anomalous, and that it was signed by Jaraula and the firm’s president, Erwin See, without the approval of the city council.
Soriano said Lao’s group would also need to prove that Mega Farm’s paid-up capital was insufficient at that time it undertook the P250-million Agora project.
Soriano said Lao’s group had asked the regional court for a writ of preliminary injunction, and Judge Abbu denied it because the petitioners had no “capacity to sue” Mega Farm, the reason why the politicians went to the SC.
The SC ruled that “the non -issuance of Writ of Preliminary Injunction from the court of origin is valid.”
But the SC also ruled that the dismissal of the petition of Lao’s group “is invalid,” and that they have a “capacity to sue.”
“Kini ang hinongdan kon ngano gibalik sa court of origin ang maong kaso alang sa subling pag-husay sa maong petition,” Soriano said.
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