MALASIQUI–Mayor Armando Domantay and members of the municipal council here are in for more trouble over the lease contract it entered into with the Magic Group of Companies for a 1,100 square meter prime public land.

An Omnibus Motion filed by a private citizen, Mario T. Armas, before the Regional Trial Court in San Carlos City, charges Domantay and other town officials with civil offence for allowing the filling up of the Binalbalolong River with gravel and sand, which thus expands “the realty unconstitutionally leased out to Magic Group of Companies”.

Armas has earlier questioned the lease contract in another civil case as it was based on a unapproved municipal ordinance proposed in 2003 when Domantay was still vice mayor.

The ordinance was submitted to the provincial board, which rejected and remanded it back to the municipal council.

Domantay defended his action by citing the authority given him by the municipal council authorizing him to enter into the contract with Magic.

In his petition before the court, Armas asserts that leasing out a portion of Binalbalolong River to Magic Group is contrary to the constitution.

Cited respondents in the petition are Domantay, Vice Mayor Mar Espinoza, Councilors Noel Geslani, Roberto Sanchez, Canuto Mendoza, Sonny Domantay, Joey Soriano, Ildefonso Veloria, Alfredo Palaganas, Pedro Opguar and Harpe Padilla, and the signatory for the Magic Group, Cecilia Lim.

Commenting on the Omnibus Motion as a private citizen of Malasiqui, former Vice Governor Oscar Lambino said “there is a law that our rivers and shores belong to the State and therefore beyond the commerce of man”.

Lambino, in an interview, hinted that it is likely that the 1,100 square meter area specified in the contract was not fully complied with compelling the local government to allow Magic to encroach on a portion of the river.

That area, said Lambino, may have been a replacement for the area occupied by the courthouse that has not been relocated by the municipal government as it has done with the other offices that occupied the area leased to Magic.

Lambino also reiterated his earlier stand that the lease contract entered into by Domantay with Magic is void ab initio because it is based on a defective municipal ordinance.

Lambino said the reclamation of part of the Binalbalolong River is an additional offence.

In a separate complaint, Armas charges Domantay for ordering the demolition, of the statue of Gat. Andres Bonifacio in front of the municipal hall without the authorization of a municipal ordinance and a clearance from the National Historical Commission.—LM

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