BY MAE SINGUAY
BACOLOD City – The Regional Trial Court here will again be hearing the case filed against former mayor Evelio Leonardia and several others over the BacolOd City Government Center or city hall.
The Supreme Court (SC) First Division denied the motion for reconsideration he filed, and remanded the case back to the lower court, according to Atty. JV Hinlo who disclosed the decision on behalf of the complainants.
But Atty. Joselito Bayatan, legal counsel of Leonardia, downplayed the development.
“There is nothing to try anymore. The case…has been overtaken already by several decisions, including one from the Supreme Court itself. All of these decisions said there was no overprice nor anomaly in the project,” said Bayatan in a statement.
The complaint against Leonardia, now congressman, was filed on January 19, 2007 at the Regional Court, Branch 44 here.
The plaintiffs, residents of this city, sought to nullify the city government contract with Hilmarc’s Construction Corp. to build the Government Center and north and south roads.
The P394.9-million contract was signed on December 27, 2006.
The plaintiffs questioned the contract price and asked the court to order the defendants (except the City of Bacolod) to jointly and severally refund the city government of whatever might have been paid to the contractor.
But according to Bayatan, the Ombudsman, in its decision on September 17, 2009 already ruled that “after evaluating the evidences adduced by the parties, we find nothing anomalous in the construction of the Bacolod City Government Center.”
Aside from Leonardia, also named respondents were then vice mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson, then city councilors Greg Gasataya (now vice mayor), Anna Marie Palermo, Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, Homer Bais, Dindo Ramos, Napoleon Cordova, Al Victor Espino, Arturo Parreño, Mary Louie de la Rosa; the members of the Bids and Awards Committee, Atty. Goldwyn Nifras, Atty. Lorendo Dilag, Atty. Allan Zamora (now deceased), Dr. Rogelio Balo, Luzviminda Treyes, Architect Lemuel Reynaldo and Hilmarc’s Construction Corp.
HOW CASE MOVED
The Regional Trial Court dismissed the case on November 29, 2012. The plaintiffs, however, brought the case to the Court of Appeals.
The appellate court nullified the decision of the Regional Trial Court on March 9, 2007 and remanded it to the lower court for further proceedings.
The defendants filed a motion for reconsideration but the Court of Appeals denied it on December 12, 2013.
They brought the case to the Supreme Court but failed to get relief either.
The Supreme Court decision was dated April 21, 2014.
The complainants were Bacolod City taxpayers Miguel Carriedo, Jesus Lazaro, Ben Solilapsi, Allan Calilan and Abraham Tingson.
Carriedo, the primer mover of the complaint, said he spent personal money to file the case, being a concerned citizen of Bacolod.
“Nobody instigated me to file the case,” Carriedo said.
The basis for the Regional Trial Court’s decision to dismiss the case was two Commission on Audit (COA) special audit reports dated March 20, 2009 and September 25, 2009 stating that the contract price of the Government Center was reasonable, within the 10-percent tolerable limit and therefore could not be considered overpriced.
The Supreme Court, on the other hand, used as basis a special audit report of the Commission in Region 6 that also issued a Notice of Disallowance dated November 25, 2009 on the construction of the government center, north and south roads, said Hinlo.
‘NO BIG DEAL’
But further playing down what Hinlo announced, Bayatan said the Ombudsman itself noted the COA special audit reports.
“May we reiterate that the case being touted is a simple case on whether the case of the Government Center construction needs to be tried by the courts. This has already been overtaken by the Ombudsman decision and all we need to do is inform the Supreme Court of this development and we will do that in our motion for reconsideration,” Bayatan said.
As to the claim of Carriedo that the case is not politically motivated but a simple taxpayer’s suit, Bayatan asked: “Who called for his press conference? His lawyers, Hinlo as well as Atty. Rolando Villamor who is also the city administrator, are both (Mayor Monico) Puentevella’s lawyers.”
Puentevella and Leonardia are at odds./PN
