Tomas wants judge to inhibit from case

CEBU, Philippines - Former Cebu City mayor and congressman Tomas Osmeña is asking Regional Trial Court Judge Alexander Acosta to refrain from further presiding over his case against Cebu City government over the demolition of graves and houses at Doña Pepang Cemetery.

Through his lawyer Benjamin Militar, Osmeña said Acosta had an “unexplicable resoluteness to dismiss the case” and did not dignify that he filed the case as a citizen.

“In the order dismissing the case and disallowing the intervention, and throughout the oral arguments in this case, before and after such dismissal, it was palpably obvious, the Honorable Presiding Judge never bothered to dignify this suit as a citizen suit; despite extensive citations supporting the right of petitioner to sue as such,” Osmeña’s omnibus motion for inhibition read.

The Cebu City government, through lawyer Jerone Castillo, earlier questioned the legal standing of Osmeña in petitioning to stop the city from demolishing the houses of informal settlers within the Osmeña Mausoleum Property, also known as Doña Pepang Cemetery.

Osmeña, however, said he has the right to sue Mayor Michael Rama and the city council as a citizen, aside from protecting the property of his father. Such matter — the citizen suit, he said, remains unresolved up to the latest order of the court.

“Instead, he glossed over them, ignored them, plainly and deliberately disregarding that this is a case of judicial review to correct culpable violations of the Constitution; this is an indubitable  indication that this case will not be decided by the cold neutrality of an impartial judge,” Osmeña, in his motion, further said of Acosta.

Upon hearing Osmeña’s motion seeking for Acosta’s inhibition, Castillo said the city will oppose it.

“We will oppose it because there are no grounds to inhibit,” said Castillo.

He said this is not the first time that Osmeña’s counsel sought for an inhibition.

“With all due respect to them, we can’t allow such thing to happen. It seems that if they don’t get a favorable ruling, they just ask the judge to inhibit. We will submit our comment and opposition to their motion. I already gave instruction to prepare,” Castillo added.

According to Osmeña, the informal settlers at the cemetery were threatened by lawyer Collin Rosell, head of the City Division for the Welfare of Urban Poor.

Rosell allegedly told the occupants that if they will not withdraw their case, they will not be provided with a relocation site. The informal settlers have earlier filed a motion for intervention in the case filed by Osmeña against the city.

But the same intervention was dismissed by the court.

Hence, Osmeña is seeking for Acosta to inhibit from further hearing the case, or issuing any resolution or order in relation to the merits of the case.

Acosta has earlier denied the temporary restraining order sought by Osmeña to stop the demolition of the graves and niches and the houses of the informal settlers within the property for being premature.

Osmeña filed an omnibus motion seeking for the reinstatement of their civil case for prohibition and injunction with a prayer for the issuance of TRO against the defendants, after it was dismissed by the court.

In the omnibus motion, Osmeña impleaded Raquel Arce, the chief of the Prevention, Restoration Order Beautification and Enhancement (PROBE), to stop the demolition in the said property.

 However, at least nine owners of illegal structures along the highway have volunteered to tear their structures on their own last Wednesday.

PROBE officer-in-charge Wendell Cenas said his team will help the families in clearing the illegal structures on Monday for the faster implementation of the city’s project in the cemetery.

The city government plans to convert the 9,282-square meter cemetery, situated along M.J. Cuenco Avenue, into a heritage park.

The cemetery was previously owned by the Archdiocese of Cebu but was swapped with a city-owned lot in Barangay Pasil.

The city government entered into an agreement with the Archdiocese of Cebu to convert the cemetery into a park. (FREEMAN)