League of Cities misleading public, says Tabuk City exec

TABUK CITY, Kalinga — The vice mayor of this city assailed the League of Cities of the Philippines for reportedly trying to make it appear in a published press statement that the November, 2008 decision of the Supreme Court reverting the 16 new cities, including Tabuk to towns is final and executory.

Vice Mayor Rainier Sarol, a lawyer, said that in the statement, the LCP intentionally left out the fact that on Sept. 29, the SC ordered the league to comment on the latest motion for reconsideration filed by the 16 new cities.

“The LCP would like to mislead the public that the November, 2008 decision of the Supreme Court is already final by intentionally not admitting that there is still a pending motion which they were required to comment on, meaning the only logical conclusion is that the decision of the court on the case is not yet final,” Sarol said.

The statement of the LCP which denounced the 16 respondents for employing “sneaky tactics intended to reverse what has already been decided with finality” made no reference to the Sept. 29 resolution of the SC which ordered the league to comment on the Motion for Reconsideration of SC Resolution of June 2, 2009 which seeks the reinstatement of Motion to Amend Resolution of April 28, 2009.

In their motion seeking to amend the April 28, 2009 SC resolution, the 16 cities claimed the 6-6 vote on the Second Motion for Reconsideration violated Section 4 (2), Article VIII of the Constitution which states that all issues involving constitutionality should be heard by the SC en banc and should be decided by a majority.

According to the LCP statement, the 16 new cities have been writing private letters to the individual justices and filing prohibited pleadings in an attempt to change the votes of the justices.

Sarol said there is nothing immoral or wrong about writing individual justices for so long that this is done publicly as a letter to a justice is a public document for everyone to see.

“Such letters could be likened to the resolutions passed by the different members of the LCP urging the Supreme Court to deny our motion for reconsideration such as the resolution made by the city council of Baguio City. They are just public documents expressing the side of the petitioners and the respondents,” Sarol said.

As for the alleged prohibited pleadings filed by the 16 respondents, Sarol said that a pleading is only prohibited when it is expunged from the records by the Supreme Court but not when the court entertains it which he said is the case with the Motion for Reconsideration of Resolution of June 2, 2009 of the respondents. -- EAJ