Court junks injunction case versus Gov. Garcia

CEBU, Philippines — The Regional Trial Court in Cebu City has dismissed the petition for injunction filed by Apo Land and Quarry Corporation (ALQC) against Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia following the latter’s executive order suspending the company’s quarry operations in the City of Naga for 30 days pending an environment assessment.

RTC Branch 9 Judge Alexander Acosta junked the petition after the legal counsel of the petitioner manifested that they are withdrawing the case to give way to a negotiation with the provincial government.

The manifestation came after Garcia personally appeared before the court yesterday and explained her reasons of issuing a cease and desist order against the quarry operations of ALQC.

Garcia told the court that the petition for preliminary injunction with prayer for a 20-day temporary restraining order came as a surprise to her because she was supposed to be meeting the ALQC officials yesterday to discuss how they can continue the operations without risking the lives of the people living near the quarry sites.

“I don’t know what happened to them, they filed a TRO and then the counsel was instructed by the top management to withdraw. It’s good that they’ve withdrawn, but mi-rule ang judge nga the case was dismissed…” Garcia told reporters during an ambush interview after the hearing yesterday.

From the court, Garcia went back to Capitol where she met with the officials of ALQC, Cemex Philippines, and other government officials.

During the meeting, which was streamed live through Sugbo News, Garcia told the company officials that the filing of the case did not sit well with her.

The governor believes that ALQC’s action was done “extremely in bad faith” considering the company filed the petition on December 6, four days after their meeting on December 2, where they agreed to have another meeting yesterday.

“That’s backstabbing,” Garcia told company officials.

“So are we going to negotiate here, or shall we just then treat each other as adversaries from here henceforth, because I’m ready to fight, I’m ready at whatever cost it will be to me, officially and personally," Garcia said.

"Because who will fight for these people, they have no influence, they have no power, they have no money, and they’re up against wealthy, extremely wealthy conglomerates,” she added.

Luis Franco, CEMEX Holdings Philippines President and CEO, apologized to the governor and emphasized they intend to continue with their negotiation with the Capitol.

“We are very sorry for that…the intention was to continue with the negotiation, but the timing was unfortunate… We should have withdrawn the case” he said.

Garcia explained that her EO was not to shut down forever the operations of the quarry company but to find ways to protect people living near the quarry area of ALQC in Naga City in order to avoid the massive landslide that happened in Barangay Tina-an that killed over 70 people in 2018.

“Ang akong cease and desist (order) naa sad term, 30 days, kay we are hoping to come with an agreement. What I really want is to create a buffer zone kay ni-issue man sad ang MGB (Mines and Geosciences Bureau), last previous administration, og mga MPSAs, giapil ang mga areas nga pwerte nang daghanang namuyo,” Garcia said.

“This is an environmental issue, not to mention a potential disaster of human lives issue,” the governor stressed.

Earlier, Garcia issued EO number 22 directing ALQC to stop its “earth-moving operations” after it was observed that their continued operation is an “apparent disregard of the safety” of the people living within and near MPSA (Mineral Production Sharing Agreement) areas.

The order took effect on December 3. MPSA is a type of mineral agreement wherein the government grants a contractor a right to mine within, but not little over, in an area. —/FPL (FREEMAN)