Doña Pepang case assigned to new judge

CEBU, Philippines – A new judge is set to try the case filed by former congressman Tomas Osmeña against Cebu City government officials in relation to the demolitions at the Osmeña Mausoleum Property or the Doña Pepang Cemetery.

The civil case for injunction has been assigned to Regional Trial Court Branch 17 Judge Marivic Trabajo-Daray. This after RTC Branch 9 Judge Alexander Acosta begged off from handling the case “to prevent suspicion of doubt.”

Osmeña’s camp filed the injunction to stop the demolition of the graves, niches and structures at the cemetery which the city eyes to develop into a heritage park.

For years, members of the Osmeña family would gather in the area, especially on All Souls’ Day, as it is the burial ground for the remains of former Cebu City mayor Sergio Osmeña Jr. and his mother, Estefania Chiong Veloso de Osmeña.

It also reportedly hosts the remains of Juana Osmeña, mother of the late president Sergio Osmeña Sr., and other members of the Osmeña, Veloso, Suico and Sotto families of Cebu.

When Acosta dismissed the injunction case earlier for “lack of merit,” Tomas filed an omnibus motion for reconsideration before the court, which remains unresolved.

The former lawmaker filed a motion for inhibition, citing Acosta had an “unexplicable resoluteness to dismiss the case.”

“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,” the omnibus motion for inhibition read.

Mayor Michael Rama and the City Council had sought for the denial of the motion, but this proved futile at Acosta’s back-out.

Mandamus

Meanwhile, the civil case for mandamus filed by former Cebu City councilor Atty. Jose Daluz III against the Cebu City Council to compel it to act on the Supplemental Budget No. 1 was also raffled off to the sala of Daray.

There has been no development on the case, however, ever since it was raffled on December 29, 2015.

Daluz had alleged that without just cause, the council deferred the deliberation and voting on SB-1 which seeks, among others, to provide appropriation for the prepayment of the outstanding loan of the city to the Japan International Cooperating Agency for the develo-pment of Cebu South Reclamation Project.

“There is a legal mandate for respondent Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) to act and on SB-1 and not just sit on it without justifiable ground,” read the petition.

Named respondents of the case are City Councilors Nestor Archival, Sr., Lea Japson, Mary Ann Delos Santos, Sisinio Andales, Alvin Arcilla, Roberto Cabarrubias, Ma. Nida Cabrera, Alvin Dizon, Eugenio Gabuya Jr. and Margarita Osmeña. — Mylen P. Manto/JMD (FREEMAN)