IT’S not an issue of legality but the absence of building permit.

City Legal Officer George Mejia made this clarification Friday to justify the action taken by City Engineer Virginia Rosario in stopping MetroState Realty Corporation’s construction at the former Magsaysay Park and in response to a letter sent by Ariel Ancheta, project manager of MetroState alleging that the city engineer’s action as “illegal”.

MertroState charged that Rosario acted arbitrarily when she stopped the construction and argued that only the court can do the same. Mejia, however, said the argument cannot be deemed valid because the construction of MetroState was considered a public nuisance, having no building permit.

He said under the law, the city engineer in her official capacity as building official, can summarily act against a public nuisance even without judicial  proceedings, such as the MetroState project that was being constructed without the required building permit from the city government.

Ancheta also argued that Rosario “has no authority to cause the infirment of the contract validly signed by then Mayor Benjamin Lim and MetroState”,  and that Lim, as legal representative of Dagupan, “has in his favor the presumption of regularity in the performance of his official duties when he signed the contract for the city”.

The document, stipulating a P1 million yearly lease to be paid by the MetroState to the city government, was signed for MetroState by its new president Karen Monzon. Mark Siapno was listed originally as the company’s chief executive.

Ancheta contended that the contract gave the company the right to construct and to proceed with the project, an P84-million commercial-tourism complex at the former site of Magsaysay Park across the city hall.

Moreover, he charged that Rosario acted beyond her power when she implied that Mayor Lim acted without authority in signing the contract with his company.

Mejia said Ancheta missed the point because Rosario stopped the construction and closed the premises because of the absence of a building permit.

He pointed out that Rosario did not issue the stop order not on the basis of the legality of the contract but on the provision of the National Building Code, Section 301 which reads: “No person, firm or corporation, including any agency or instrumentality of the government, shall erect, construct, demolish any building or structure or cause the same to be done without first obtaining a building permit from the building official assigned in the  place where the subject building is located or the building is to be done.”

He said if Rosario did not stop the construction, she would be liable for dereliction of duty.

Mejia pointed out that the city engineer did not issue the building permit simply because of the failure of the corporation to submit a copy of the enabling resolution authorizing Mayor Lim to enter into a contract with MetroState.

Mejia added that based on records he secured from the city council secretariat, the resolution adopted by the previous city council in its special session of Dec. 19, 2006 was not completed in the absence of a signed committee report and the signatures of the councilors who approved the resolution.

Based on the established procedure in the city council, the minutes of their regular and special sessions should first be submitted to the body in the next session for confirmation, approval or amendment.

“How could have City Secretary (Jorge Estrada) submitted the resolution in that special session in the next succeeding session when the committee report of  the chairman on the Committee on Laws and Ordinances had not submitted his written committee report?” Mejia said.

Mejia maintained that the resolution could not be deemed legal because the signed committee report of then Councilor Teofilo Guadiz III was not yet submitted at the time.

Based on documents from the city council, Guadiz submitted his committee report only on May 25, 2007, and the city council had failed to convene throughout due to lack of quorum.

It was eventually discovered that that Mayor Lim signed the contract with MetroState on January 26, 2007 even in the absence of the formal resolution authorizing the city mayor to enter into a contract.

       Because the conditions set to reaffirm the adoption of the resolution were never met, the resolution approved in the special session of Dec. 19, 2007, cannot be binding and therefore it has no force and effect, Mejia continued.
 The councilors who voted 8-2 in favor of the resolution had stipulated that they must first see the committee report before signing the minutes but Councilor Guadiz never complied. —LM

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