A QUEZON City judge on Tuesday ordered two city officials to stop the construction of a high-end school in Barangay Blue Ridge A to prevent a major disaster from happening once a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hits the area.
Branch 226 Judge Manuel Sta. Cruz issued a writ of preliminary injunction, directing Isagani Verzosa and Tomasito Cruz, the city’s Department of Building Official chief and Planning and Development chief, respectively, not to grant a building permit for the Multiple Intelligence International School and to implement the city’s Revised Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance or Sangguniang Panglunsod 2200 of 2013 that classified the area as a special urban development zone.
Sta. Cruz took into account the arguments of Blue Ridge A chairman Gabriel Legaspi, along with barangay councilor Marie Antoinette Mendoza and homeowners Victor Endaya, Gonzalo Misa, Sonia Roco, Sonia Mendoza, Wilfred Datu Cruz, Raul Consunji, Maria Lourdes Manzano Carlos, Lester Lao and Lonabel Encarnacion “to prevent any untoward incident that may happen should there be an earthquake given that Blue Ridge is near the Marikina fault line and the proposed site of MIIS’ school abuts a cliff.”
“On this score, this Court sees that petitioners’ concerns are not simply for convenience. They were able to demonstrate the presence of a strong, valid and compelling interest – the health and safety of residents and the need to prevent the perceived environmental harm,” the order read.
Even the environmental compliance commitment (certificate) issued to the school management would not guarantee that there would be no environmental hazards to result from school’s construction and operation, the court said.
Sta. Cruz also took into considerations the complaints of Legaspi and company that traffic would worsen along Katipunan Avenue because of the school’s operation, citing the failure of MIIS to substantiate that there would be no gridlock due to its operation.
He said the school management only prepared an “internal traffic system” inside the school premises which could accommodate only 75 vehicles.