College officials sue mayor for padlocking school

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Officials of the Mandaue City College filed a case against Mayor Jonas Cortes for padlocking their campus in Ibabao village last April. They also asked for P650,000 in moral and exemplary damages. The mayor’s lawyer, however, believed the case will not prosper as it lacks factual and legal basis. The MCC, represented by its board of trustees chairman Romulo Echavez Jr., filed a suit for forcible entry with prayers for preliminary mandatory injunction and damages against Cortes last Tuesday. Other defendants named in the case are Mandaue City schools division superintendent Arden Monisit, principal Rosario Casilagan of the Mandaue City Science High School and the city’s janitorial and security services unit. The complaint stemmed from the April 17, 2008 padlocking, on Cortes’ orders, of the MCC building in Barangay Ibabao-Estancia. The mayor also detailed Jassu and PNP personnel to guard the building and prevent MCC students and teachers from holding classes there. Cortes had said this was in preparation for the school’s records and equipment inventory. He said he was also implementing the 1998 deed of usufruct between former city mayor Thadeo Ouano and then schools division superintendent Gloria Pinili, which provided for the free use of the site by the Mandaue City Science National High School. In their complaint, college officials asked the court to order Cortes to vacate the building and turn it over to the MCC. They also asked that MCC officers and personnel’s belongings be returned. Headed by Dr. Paulus Cañete, the MCC transferred to a vacant space inside the Eversly Childs Sanitarium in Jagobiao village after the campus in Ibabao was padlocked. Now, they are asking for P200,000 in moral damages, P400,000 in exemplary damages and P50,000 in attorney’s fees. But for them to accuse the mayor of forcible entry, the plaintiffs should prove first that they are in actual possession of the items, said the mayor’s counsel, Francisco Amit. They must also prove, he added, that they have the right over the building being taken over. Amit said that Cañete already ceased being the school’s president based on the January 2008 ruling of RTC Judge Marlyn Lagura-Yap. He added that Echavez, representing the plaintiffs, is drawing his authority from an ordinance that is null and void. The ordinance creating the MCC was not published, so it was not valid from the beginning, said Amit. When the City Council had it published last year, councilors amended the ordinance before the 15-day period after publication could lapse. This meant that the amended ordinance had superseded the original provisions. This implies, according to Amit, that Echavez’s position was without legal basis, and that he and Cañete have no right to act as plaintiffs in this civil case against the mayor. As mayor, Cortes serves as the administrator of all local government projects and this is what gives him the right over the MCC, being a project of the city, Amit added. The mayor’s conflict with Cañete started even before this present administration started after the May 2007 elections. Cortes earlier made it clear that he will only deal with Cañete if the latter submits an accounting of school funds from the time the school official assumed office. Cañete was appointed by the previous mayor, Thadeo Ouano. He has been at odds with the present administration and has traded charges with the mayor at the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas. Deputy Ombudsman Pelagio Apostol has tried but failed to reconcile the two, and other members of their respective groups are now involved in the conflict as well. – Sun.Star Cebu