SC tells former BODs: Comment on petition
The Supreme Court has ordered former Metropolitan Cebu Water District board members to comment on the petition they filed against the decision of then mayor Edgardo Labella dismissing them from MCWD.
The terminated MCWD board during the time of the late mayor Labella in 2019 are Ralph Sevilla, Augustus Pe, Jr., and Cecilia Adlawan.
The three received a notice last March 26, 2024 from the Supreme Court’s Second Division requiring them to file within 10 days their comments to their petition.
The petition, filed before the SC after the Regional Trial Court denied their motion late last year, contended Labella’s decision to terminate them from the MCWD board in October 2019.
“After deliberating on the petition for review on certiorari assailing the Decision dated June 30, 2023 and Order dated August 15, 2023 of the Regional Trial Court, Branch 17, Cebu City in Civil Case No. R-CEB-19-09477-CV, the Court, without necessarily giving due course thereto, resolves to require: 1. respondents to file a COMMENT thereon, not a motion to dismiss, within ten (10) days from notice,” read part of the notice from the Supreme Court.
This would guide them in their next step regarding the case, said lawyer Amando Virgil Litugan of the SALiGal Law Office, lawyer of the petitioners to The Freeman yesterday.
“The Supreme Court battle for MCWD is on,” says Litugan, stressing that this is a significant development.
“This means the Supreme Court decides to take cognizance of the case. This is a significant development to the case. At the heart of the controversy is the authority of the Cebu City mayor to terminate members of the MCWD board of directors,” added Ligutan.
Further, Litugan believes the ruling on this case will settle the issue, once and for all, behind the termination of his clients and will affect the hundreds of water districts all over the country.
Earlier, Litugan vowed to seek "justice and vindication" for his clients, emphasizing that the situation ofAtty. Jose Daluz III and other members of the MCWD board is actually similar to that of his clients.
To recall, the RTC decision in Pe, Sevilla, and Adlawan’s case was made basis in Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama’s decision to remove Daluz and two others— Miguelito Pato and Jodelyn Mae Seno, as members of the MCWD Board.
Rama’s decision was reportedly in response to the case filed before the Office of the Ombudsman by some employees of the said water district.
Recently, the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) has partially intervened with an interim board, but unlike the former chairman Joel Mari Yu etc., Daluz along with Seno and Pato refused to step back.
Daluz and the rest are seeking the opinion of the Office of Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) on the legality of LWUA’s current takeover to which the latter also awaits.