BAGUIO CITY – The Supreme Court (SC) affirmed the December 28, 2012 decision and March 19, 2014 resolution of the Court of Appeals (CA) upholding a previous ruling of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 59 of Baguio City declaring Ordinance No. 038, series of 1995 prescribing the rules for the development of the city public market and the subsequent design, build and lease (DBL) agreement entered into between the city government and Uniwide Sales Realty and Resources Corporation to develop the market facility for failure of the petitioners to show that the appellate court committed any reversible error in deciding in favor of the assailed local ordinance and market development plan.
In a 3-page resolution denying the petition for review filed by the Baguio Market Vendors Association, Inc., Magdalena Navarro, and Elizabeth Diño, the SC cited as correctly ruled by the CA, aside from petitioners’ bare allegations, they have filed to show that Ordinance No. 038, series of 1995 is ultra vires and that the irregularities attended the bidding process for the development of the city public market.
“As such, the presumption of regularity in the performance of the functions of the officials of the city government should prevail. It is settled that factual findings of the trial court, when affirmed by the CA, are entitled to great weight and respect by the court and are deemed final and conclusive when supported by evidence on record, as in this case,” the SC decision stated.
Further, the High Court explained the CA was correct in ruling that the DBL agreement entered into between the city government and Uniwide is in the nature of a build-lease-transfer scheme expressly authorized under Republic Act (RA) 6957, as amended by RA 7718 and thus, no longer needs any approval from the President.
The SC pointed out a build-leas-transfer scheme is a contractual arrangement whereby a project proponent is authorized to finance and construct an infrastructure or development facility and upon its completion turns it over to the government agency or local government unit concerned on a lease agreement for a fixed period after which ownership of the facility is automatically transferred to the government agency or local government unit concerned.
Lawyer Melchor Carlos Rabanes, city legal officer, cited the latest SC ruling only shows that the decision of the government to bid out and award the market development project to Uniwide was in order from the start and that previous insinuations by individuals and groups who have vested interests in the stalls in the market were all negated by the high tribunal with its decision.
He said the local government will just await the decision to become final after the 15-day grace period before working out the entry of judgement to allow the city to notify the developer to work on the agreed development of the city public market taking into consideration the escalation of prices among others before pursuing the project.
Uniwide proposed to shell out P1.7 billion in 1996 to put up a four-story market structure with the first floor and mezzanine to be managed by the local government where all the existing legitimate and censured illegitimate vendors will be accommodated pursuant to existing rules regulations and guidelines crafted for the purpose but the project was delayed considering the cases filed by certain groups to delay the implementation of the plan. By Dexter A. See
