BAGUIO CITY – The Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 5 sued for more time to rule on whether or not to grant the petition for the issuance of the prayed writ of preliminary injunction preventing the conduct of the month-long Christmas bazaar within the Melvin Jones grandstand to raise funds which will be used by the local organizers of the Miss Universe beauty contestants visit to the city next year.
Judge Maria Ligaya V. Itliong-Rivera ordered the petitioner Ellen Loa and the respondents the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Baguio (HRAB) and the City Government of Baguio to submit their respective position papers on the issue at hand for her to come out with a decision by Monday considering that time of the essence on the pending issue.
The court requested a status quo in the Melvin Jones grandstand after the petitioner was able to post the required P50,000 bond to make operative the 7-day temporary restraining order (TRO) it issued last November 29, 2016 and until such time that the ruling on the matter will be handed down.
Earlier, the City Council approved a resolution allowing the HRAB to conduct a month-long Christmas bazaar in the Melvin Jones grandstand to serve as the city’s counterpart in the generation of added revenues that will accrue to the organizers for the visit of the 24 beauty contestants of the Miss Universe beauty pageant who will be coming up to the city on January 18, 2017.
Under the approved resolution, the Christmas bazaar was approved considering that the visit of Miss Universe contestants to the city is an extraordinary and exceptional situation because it can only happen once in a lifetime, thus, the funds to be raised by the organizers during the bazaar will be used to help them defray the huge expenses to be incurred in bringing the contestants to the city.
Lawyer Renato Rondes presented to the court that the hosting fee to be paid by the local organizers to the Miss Universe organization will be $500,000, exclusive of value added tax and withholding tax and the expenses for chartered flights, food, accommodation and the floats to be prepared for the mini-float and streetdancing parade for the visiting beauty contestants.
Judge Rivera invited Rodes, Lawyer Melchor Carlos Rabanes, representing the local government and lawyer Marissa Dacayanan, representing the petitioner, to a 30-minute meeting in chambers before handing down the order for all parties to submit their respective position papers.
According to the HRAB lawyer, HRAB will be paying to the local government a total of P1.9 million in assessed business taxes and other regulatory fees representing direct income to the city ad more than P4 million to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in percentage and other taxes while the remaining balance will be used by the organisers for the visit of the Miss Universe contestants to the city.
Judge Rivera pointed out it was not clearly defined in the city’s trade fair ordinance what are the metes and bounds of a trade fair.
By Dexter A. See
