City administrator reacts on Balyuan property issue
TACLOBAN CITY — The demand letter issued by the provincial government against the city government over the Balyu-an property was loaded with “official protocol violations” and “legal flaws.”
Thus said City Administrator Robert Muñoz in reaction to an earlier communication issued by his counterpart, Provincial Administrator Vincent Emnas, asking the city government to “immediately vacate” the 6,941 square meters property located along Magsaysay Boulevard, this city.
The area houses a building where the offices of health, social welfare and assessor, among others, are located. Councilor Cristina Gonzalez-Romualdez, wife of Mayor Alfred Romualdez, also holds office in the same building.
The multi-million Balyu-an amphitheater is also located in the same contested area together with a convention area-cum-training center.
Muñoz, in his letter, said that instead of addressing his letter to the city mayor, Emnas should have addressed his October 19 letter to his office, being his counterpart.
“As to the official protocol violations, you are not of the same level as the honorable city mayor of Tacloban, a highly urbanized city. Your letter therefore is not only uncalled for, it also constitutes official disrespect and discourtesy,” the city administrator, on his two-page letter, said.
And as to legal flaws, the contested property remains under court litigation which made Emnas’ move as “highly contumacious” which could be ground for indirect contempt.
“It contains allegations that tend to degrade, impede or obstruct the administration of justice or pre-empt (the court) of whatever decision it will make on the said case…” Muñoz said in his letter.
The city and provincial governments are in legal battle over the said property, largely known as Balyu-an property, over ownership of the 6,941 square meter property. The case, lodged before Judge Salvador Apurillo of Regional Trial Court Branch 8, was also referred for a possible mediation.
Emnas, in his one-page October 19-dated letter addressed to City Mayor Alfred Romualdez, asked the city government “to immediately vacate the said lots and to pay a reasonable value of rental for the use or occupation thereof….”
City Legal Officer Sergio Sumayod, meantime, maintains that the province has no right to claim the property considering that it has no documents to prove that it owns the property other than a tax declaration.
“While the city government has no documents to prove its ownership just like the province, we have been in possession of the property for the longest time already,” Sumayod said.
It is the national government, he said, that owns the property.
Leyte Governor Carlos Jericho Petilla said that he is leaving the matter to his legal team to resolve the issue. “I don’t like to be preoccupied with that issue. The provincial legal office will handle that,” he said in a separate interview.
He, however, maintains that the province owns the property and that the city government should honor an earlier agreement it entered with the province.
The governor was referring to the August 26, 2004 memorandum of agreement signed by then city mayor, Alfredo “Bejo” Romualdez, the father of the incumbent mayor, for the city to use the property.
“We were deceived by the province that it owns the property. That is why the former mayor, acting on good faith, entered an agreement,” Sumayod said.
Last July 10 of this year, the city government filed a case before the court seeking for the annulment of the agreement that expired last August 26 or five years after it was signed.
By JOEY A. GABIETA
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