Court asked to junk Tomas’ plea

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and the City Council want the court to reject the motion of former mayor Tomas Osmeña for the court to reconsider its ruling denying his request for a temporary restraining order against the city’s development project at the Doña Pepang Cemetery where the Osmeña Mausoleum is situated.

They said that Osmeña failed to discuss the “legal and jurisprudential requisite” in his motion for reconsideration thus the pleading should be denied.

“…considering that petitioner (Osmeña) has miserably failed to establish the requisites for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and likewise failed to establish the requisites for the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction, petitioner’s motion for reconsideration should be denied and no writ of preliminary injunction should be granted,” their opposition reads.

Judge Alexander Acosta of Regional Trial Court Branch 9 earlier denied Osmeña’s request for a TRO to which the former filed a motion for reconsideration.

Acosta denied Osmeña’s request after the city through lawyer Collin Rosell, head of the Division for the Welfare of Urban Poor, assured that the tombs at the cemetery will not be removed.

The city wants to convert the area located along M.J. Cuenco Avenue, into a park.

Osmeña through lawyer Benjamin Militar, however, questioned the closure the cemetery, saying it is beyond the mayor’s authority.

“It is the stand of the petitioner that the authority of respondent as mayor is to preserve the Osmeña Mausoleum Cemetery. He had no authority to close the cemetery,” Osmeña’s motion reads.

Militar said, though, that they are partly glad that the city will not remove any tomb.

Osmeña had asked that the court issue a preliminary prohibitory injunction to stop Rama from closing the Osmeña Mausoleum Property, from destroying the cemetery and from demolishing the homes of the informal settlers and evicting them without complying with Republic Act 7279 or the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992.

August last year, Rama announced that he will convert the cemetery into a park and ordered that informal settlers living there demolish their structures. 

Osmeña said demolishing the cemetery is beyond the powers of the mayor and that the demolition of the homes of the informal settlers violates the Constitution and RA 7279 because it was done without a court order.

But Rama and the City Council said Osmeña failed to even discuss the court’s reason for denying his petition for a TRO.

“…petitioner’s motion for reconsideration does not even discuss the reasoning of the Honorable Court in denying petitioner’s prayer for issuance of a TRO through its order dated 28 November 2014, nor explain why such reasoning was flawed and should be reversed. Clearly, therefore, petitioner’s motion for reconsideration has no merit and should consequently, be denied,” the opposition reads. – (FREEMAN)