BAGUIO CITY – The claimant of a 195-hectare property charged Sta. Lucia Realty Development, Inc. before a local court for contempt due to the developer’s open defiant of a Temporary Environment Protection Order (TEPO) that was issued against the company.
In a 3-page motion to cite Sta. Lucia Realty Development, Inc. in contempt, the heirs of Tunged accused the company, without justifiable reasons, allegedly defiantly and contumaciously, refused to cease and desist from their works on its golf course project in disregard of the lawful order of the court.
On January 7, 2019, Judge Maria Ligaya V. Itliong-Rivera issued an order granting the prayer of the heirs of Tunged for the issuance of a Temporary Environment Protection Order wherein it directed the company and other respondents as well as those acting for and in its behalf to cease and desist from doing further excavation works and acts of destruction on the property in question effective immediately and during the pendency of the case until further orders of the court.
The heirs of Tunged alleged that a certain Engr. Ernesto Abrazaldo of the company is allegedly continuously asserting their claim that only the sheriff of the court can stop them in the implementation of their golf course project despite the assistance rendered by barangay officials of Asin in their favour.
The motion signed by lawyers Noel Magalgalit and Jansen Nacar stated that since the issuance of the order, the golf course developer has been reportedly doing the acts complained of and even when the petition was filed, Sta. Lucia is still operating its bulldozers and dump trucks in gross violation of the order.
The heirs of Tunged claimed the open defiance of the company to obey the lawful process of the court signifies not only wilful disregard or disobedience of the court’s order, but such conduct which tends to bring the authority of the court and the administration of law into disrepute or, in some manner, to impede the due administration of justice, thus, constitute contempt under applicable juries prudence and the rules of court.
The ears of Tunged represented by Rosita Yaris-Liwan, Virgie S. Atin-an, Beltran P. Saingan, Mabel Daling, Monica Domingo and Elizabeth Pinono attached to their petition photographs showing the company’s open defiance of the court order even if the same was already handed down.
In their opposition to the motion to cite defendants in contempt, Baguio Properties, Inc. and Sta. Lucia Realty and Development, Inc. opposed the said motion considering that the same is a mere scrap of paper not having complied with the rules of court, alleging that the indirect contempt being filed against the company on the ground of disobedience to a lawful order of the court cannot be filed by a mere motion and that a verified petition comply with the requirements of initiatory pleadings of civil action must be filed.
The defendants claimed that the motion does not alleged that they have received the motion and neighed it allege when it was received by the defendants.
The defendants pointed out that the petition is not meritorious considering that the private defendants did not reportedly receive a copy of the order dated January 7, 2019 and that the alleged service of the same upon one Engr. Ernesto Abrazaldo by the office of the barangay is not a notice to private defendants because it was not served by the proper person and has not been received by their counsel.
The court initially scheduled for hearing the motion to cite defendants in contempt on Friday, February 1, 2019 wherein the motion was incidental to the environment case filed by the heirs of Tunged against the company for intruding into the contested property subject of the ancestral claim by the petitioners.
By HENT, Banner photo lifted from “The Igorot” Facebook account, 01/20/19