The City Government of Bacolod through the City Legal Office is seeking the dismissal of the case filed in 2019 by petitioner former councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue questioning its P1.5-billion loan for the ground of recycled complaints and forum shopping.
City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan said this is their response to the order of the Regional Trial Court Branch 44 issued on Dec. 9, 2020, asking the city to answer in 30 days the original petition in the civil case filed by Batapa-Sigue.
The city stands that the mother case of injunction has been denied by the court in 2019 since the petitioner missed to define the cause of action and there is nothing to stop.
However, the petitioner refiled the case on the same year questioning the ordinance that approved the loan. Then the city asked what part of the ordinance is being is questioned, and if the petitioner have paid worth a million pesos of docket fees if they are seeing any damages made.
Bayatan said that because of the denial of the petition for injunction, the loan with the Development Bank of the Philippines proceeded and the construction of the MassKara Coliseum in Barangay Alijis, along the Circumferential Road is now ongoing.
“This is a dismissible case on the grounds that the petitioner also raised the same complaints to the Supreme Court and that it became a sort of a forum shopping since the case was still pending in the lower court,” he added.
For her part, Batapa-Sigue said that the court took cognizance of their refiled case since they have more than 10 grounds questioning the priority of the city for constructing a coliseum instead of a hospital.
In the petition, she cited the poor health system of the city and the pandemic in 2020 and up to now, which has proved that the health facility she was pushing could have been a big a help this time.
Batapa-Sigue also questioned the alleged irregularity in the fast approval of the loan as it neared the election period that time.
“It’s up for the court to evaluate the answer of the city. What is important was among the many who complained against the purpose of the loan, she had come out to bring this matter in the proper venue,” she added. – MML
