VP Binay Hails Court of Appeals Too Soon for the Globe Asiatique Case

Vice President Jejomar Binay may have hailed the Court of Appeals too soon for decision that allows the filing of syndicated estafa charges against businessman Delfin Lee and other executives of housing firm Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp.

A blogger known only as Antony apparently published information showing that the lawyers of Lee filed on Tuesday April  24, a petition with the Supreme Court asking it to issue an ex-parte temporary restraining order (TRO) directing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to cease and desist from filing the syndicated estafa case against him and the other respondents.

In the scanned copy of the petition for TRO filed at the Supreme Court, it states:

Lee’s lawyers said the CA also erred when it ruled that there was grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of the Pasig RTC Branch 167. 

They added that the CA was mistaken when it ruled that there is no prejudicial question in theMakaticivil case filed by Globe Asiatique against HMDF in relation to the first and second criminal complaints pending with the DOJ. 

They said a requisite common to the writs of certiorari, prohibition and mandamus is that these writs may be availed of only if there is no appeal or any plain, speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law from the acts of the respondents. 

“In the injunction case with RTC Pasig 167, not only was there a plain, speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law, but respondent DOJ actually availed of the same,” they said. 

The petition for certiorari also violated Rule 46, Section 3 of the Rules of Court which provides that “the petition shall contain the full names and actual addresses of all the petitioners and respondents, a concise statement of the matters involved, the factual background of the case, and the ground relied upon for the relief prayed for.” 

However, when the DOJ filed its petition for certiorari with the CA, it failed to indicate the material dates when the motion for reconsideration and its comment was filed with RTC Pasig 167. “As stated above, this is a sufficient ground for the dismissal of the Petition,” Lee’s lawyers said.

@noynoyaquino Reghis Romero's P4.46 Billion Smokey Mountain housing project could end up killing its poor beneficiaries

Inasmuch as Vice President Jejomar Binay has sworn to rid the government shelter sector of corruption, perhaps it should train its guns on Reghis Romero and the controversial Smokey Mountain Project which involves P 4.46 billion.

The money was apparently wasted on low cost housing units that were built so far way below standard that it is now crumbling and POSES SERIOUS THREATS on the lives of the poor people living in them.

Here's reference to it from a previous column of Ducky Paredes:

http://www.duckyparedes.com/blogs/2010/06/25/2276/

A letter to the editor was sent to me: “By now, most people already know that the ‘midnight deal’ had been paved by De Castro when he asked President Arroyo last May 25 to release P4.46 billion to be used in paying the claims of Reghis Romero in relation to the controversial Smokey Mountain Project.

“But what Mr. Paredes shone a light on was the apparently long-standing complaint of the ‘beneficiaries’ of the Smokey Mountain housing project undertaken by Romero with the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the Housing Guaranty Corp. led by De Castro as housing czar.

“Citing complaints by the Alyansa ng Mamamayan sa Smokey Mountain and the Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap or KADAMAY, the housing units turned out to be of substandard quality so much so that many are already crumbling, even threatening the lives of those who lease them.

Likewise, the leaseholders had pointed out that at least seven more housing buildings had been left unfinished by Romero’s R-II Builders, a clear case of breach of contract.

“It’s a wonder how the National Housing Authority and the Home Guaranty Corp. under De Castro had anything to do with a project that is not only overpriced but is also substandard. I mean, didn’t the DPWH even check on the units before they were turned over to the poor former settlers at Smokey Mountain?

“The government officials behind this project, past and present but especially the current ones, should be jailed for this travesty and clear case of corruption bedeviling a government project.

“De Castro should be ashamed of himself.”– Fiona Marie Vallejo Filinvest East, Marcos Highway, Antipolo City

More recently, a Quezon city judge has thrown out Reghis Romero's petition to muzzle two newspapers by keeping them from accepting advertisements appealing to President Aquino to investigate the Smoke mountain project.

http://www.malaya.com.ph/09062010/edducky.html

QUEZON City Judge Evangeline Castillo-Marigomen threw out a temporary restraining order (TRO) petition filed against two broadsheets by real estate developer Reghis Romero and his company R-II Builders.

The TRO would have stopped the publication of advocacy advertisements asking President Aquino to investigate the Smokey Mountain project and the aborted payment of billions of pesos to R-II.

The judge ruled that what Romero wanted goes against the policy of government to make public projects more transparent and open to the scrutiny of the people.

After all, it is taxpayers’ money that R-II wanted as payment -- P3.17 billion for a project for which it once admitted accomplishing only P211 million worth of actual work done.

Also, the court noted that granting the TRO would amount to the imposition of prior restraint on media. Censorship, said Judge Marigomen, has no place in a democracy. Her decision stated: "The TRO sought by R-II has no place in a democracy like the Philippines because it sought to stop media from fulfilling its mandate to present all sides of a story."

R-II should not take media to task for just doing its job of providing balanced views on a particular issue because the ideal is for all parties to an issue to be given a fair chance to be heard.

It should be pointed out that the same papers had been running countless ads that can be reasonably assumed to be coming from R-II or from its allies. The ads have been defending if not praising to high heavens the Smokey Mountain project.

Now, how can R-II ask P30 million in damages from the same papers who just balanced the many pro-R-II and pro-Smokey Mountain project ads with but a few contrary ads?

Since when did it become wrong for taxpayers to ask government to ensure against the overpricing of public projects? Isn’t that the very essence of fighting corruption, a self-imposed crusade of President Aquino?

At the end of the day, R-II must justify every centavo of the billions of pesos it is seeking from taxpayers, while accounting for the rentals and profit share of the government from Manila Harbour Center, which it has not been remitting remit for the last 10 years.

These are very valid issues, which members of media have the duty to dissect and bring before the people.

The "Dear Noynoy" ads asked for a full-blown investigation on, among other things, why R-II was to be paid P3.17 billion for a project for which it admitted in court having actual accomplishments amounting only to P211 million.

The P3.17 billion was part of the P4.4 billion whose release under a "compromise agreement" involving R-II and the Home Guaranty Corp. (HGC) was endorsed to Malacañang by former Vice President and housing czar Noli de Castro before he stepped down from office.

The "compromise agreement" would have been signed before President Aquino took his office last June 30 had it not been exposed in media as overly lopsided in R-II’s favor.

The ad also questioned R-II’s control of the 79-hectare Manila Harbour Center, as well as its non-remittance for 10 years now of government’s share from the rentals and profits generated by the government-owned land.

The Kapisanan Kontra Korapsyon (KKK), which paid for the ads, says of the judge’s decision:

"This is a victory for the people in our fight against corruption and the imposition of prior restraint and censorship on news media." In her order dated August 13, Judge Evangeline Castillo Marigomen said the court could not grant the TRO because it would transgress a "policy of government with respect to the transparency of government contracts as well as prior restraint."

"This is a press freedom issue, as what are really harassment charges filed against journalists, media outfits and crusading citizens should be promptly thrown out by our courts," KKK said.