THE city government believes it has scored two successive rounds of victories in the civil case filed by MetroState Realty Corporation against City Engineer Virginia Rosario, although a crucial third round is still ahead.

“You’ve   heard    it.

The lawyer for the plaintiff withdrew the application for  injunction,” said City Legal Officer George Mejia after a heated argument with lawyer Francisco Baraan III, counsel of MetroState, at the sala of Regional Trial Court Judge Rolando Mislang of Branch 42 on Monday.

The two lawyers faced off on September 10 for the second time to argue for their respective clients but the meeting was brief as Mejia charged that the counsel for the plaintiff had not complied with the order of the court to furnish him with documentary exhibits.

Mejia, for his part, has given his documentary exhibits to Baraan.

Mejia said that on top of this, the application for Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) has been withdrawn as none was issued by the judge more than a month after the city government ordered a stop to MetroState’s construction of an P84 million tourism-commercial complex at the former Magsaysay Park.

Rosario stopped the construction for its failure to secure a building permit owing to its inability to submit documents to support its application.

Mejia said the only issue left to be resolved is the issue of mandamus asking the court to issue an order compelling Rosario to issue a building permit.

He said if the judge grants Baraan’s motion for summary judgment, a writ of mandamus will be issued compelling the city engineer to issue the building permit.

But he added that if the judge dismisses it, “That’s the end of the case”.

SUMMARY JUDGEMENT

Baraan manifested he is filing a motion for summary judgment within five days and will let the other party comment on it within five days.

After that, the judge will rule on the case.

Mejia, a retired city court judge, said he is in a quandary why the opposing counsel filed a motion for summary judgment.

“We are withdrawing because the issue with respect to the injunction is the same issue with respect to the main case itself,” Baraan told newsmen, asserting that he did not file the case just for the sake of filing but with the serious intent of winning it.

Baraan said he also did it to expedite the proceedings.

He pointed out that his assumes that the issues had already been joined and that there are no factual issues involved except those that were already established by documentary evidence admitted by both parties.

The motion for summary judgment, he said, will allow the judge to rule on the merit of the complaint, based on the pleadings and the answers to the pleadings as well as the exhibits admitted by both parties.

“It is very simple. The one I raised before the court was whether or not the city engineer may refuse the issuance of a building permit because it (plaintiff) can not produce or does not like to produce the Sangguniang Panlungsod authority to enter into contract with MetroState,” Baraan said.

Asked if the resolution from the city council was still needed in the issuance of a building permit, Baraan drew a parallelism on somebody wanting to build a house with a special power of attorney coming from the owner wherein the city engineer still insists that the special power of attorney  be produced by the attorney-in-fact.—LM

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