A prominent contractor has branded as “premature, illegal and oppressive” the Puerto Princesa City government’s plan to forcibly take over the city market and the terminal located in the city proper, presently in the contractor’s possession through a lease contract with the city government.
Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, representing Areza Cruz Realty Development Co. Inc., said that although the Court of Appeals may have invalidated the firm’s contract with the city government, “it does not automatically mean that the city of Puerto Princesa has the right to take possession of the property.”
“For one, the ruling of the CA is still the subject of a motion for reconsideration. What if the CA reverses itself, as it has done on so many occasions?” Topacio said in a statement issued by Areza Cruz on Wednesday.
Topacio, a former assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, said the issue in the case against the city government, which initially lost to the firm in the Regional Trial Court of Puerto Princesa, “is only about the validity of the contract.”
“It is not about who is entitled to possession of the property, which is subject to a different set of procedures,” the Areza Cruz counsel said. “Under the law, one cannot dispossess another of any property by force without a court order to that effect. Any such act will subject the perpetrators thereof to criminal, civil and administrative sanctions.”
The city administrator of Puerto Princesa has announced several times that it would disarm the guards of the contractor and throw out the tenants after the CA rendered its decision in favor of the city, Topacio said.
“Possession is nine-tenths of the law, as they say. We appeal to the city government not to escalate tensions and open the possibility of physical danger to the guards, staff, and tenants of Areza Cruz by standing down and allowing the Supreme Court to make a definitive ruling on the matter before taking any drastic action,” he added.