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THE
Court of Appeals (CA) has stopped the Regional Trial
Court (RTC) in Pasay City from proceeding with the
auction of two government lots situated within the
Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Complex.
The
appellate court’s Special Fourteenth Division issued a
temporary restraining order on June 20 based on the
petition for certiorari filed by Solicitor General Agnes
Devanadera, who insisted that the writ of execution is
null and void, having been issued by Judge Tingaraan
Guiling of Branch 109 of the RTC in Pasay City, with
grave abuse of discretion.
However,
in a manifestation and motion filed on June 23, the
Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) informed the CA
that the public auction of the 23.89-hectare properties
titled in the name of CCP covered by Transfer
Certificate of Title 75676 and TCT 75681—both located in
the cities of Pasay and Manila—proceeded despite the TRO
it issued.
The OSG
said the TRO was released by the CA at 10 a.m. on June
20 and despite the manifestation of CCP legal counsel
Geoge Misa that there was already a forthcoming TRO
issued by the CA, the lower court pushed through with
the auction.
A few
minutes after 10 a.m., the OSG said, the auction was
done and respondents Real Estate Corp. and Pasay City
government were declared the lone joint bidders.
The two
bidded P5.30 billion for the lot covered by TCT 75681
and P6.64 billion for the lot covered by TCT 75676.
“Indeed, it is very clear that, with the service of the
notice of sale at the eleventh hour considering that it
was issued on April 30, 2008, and with the manner of the
auction sale which was conducted with utmost haste, that
private respondents, in connivance with the Sheriff,
went beyond the bounds of law and equity and attempted
to render nugatory and inutile the TRO issued by this
Honorable Court.
“Also,
the Sheriff, aside from his evident partiality, showed
blatant disrespect to this Honorable Court when he
proceeded with the auction despite being informed that
there was already a TRO issued. If he was dubious as to
the veracity of the CCP legal counsel’s manifestation,
he could have easily called this Honorable Court for
verification,” the OSG said.
Thus,
the OSG asked the CA to nullify the auction held on June
20, having been done in defiance of the TRO.
The OSG
also asked the CA to cite Sheriff Reyner de Jesus in
contempt for proceeding with the auction despite the
issuance of the TRO.
In its
petition for certiorari, the OSG recounted that on March
6, it received a copy of the order dated February 28
issued by Guiling denying its motion for reconsideration
of the July 3, 2007, order dismissing its “very urgent
motion to quash the writ of execution” issued on May 8,
2007, and sheriff’s “notice of execution and notice to
pay” dated May 11, 2007.
The writ
of execution and notice to pay ordered the government to
pay private respondents Pasay City and Republic Real
Estate Corp. (RREC) the amount of P49.17 billion.
But, the
OSG complained that the writ of execution is null and
void since the amount adjudged by the Supreme Court in
its November 25, 1998, decision was only P10.9 million.
The
amount was awarded by the high court to respondents
Pasay City and RREC as compensation for the reclamation
of several hectares of land that was subject of a
reclamation contract between Pasay and RREC, which was
subsequently nullified by the Supreme Court. |
