The Court of Appeals (CA) has recognized the right of Senior Deputy Speaker and Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr. to intervene in the “irregular” sale of the 9.3-hectare Paskuhan Village in San Fernando City, Pampanga.
In a decision issued last May 23, the CA fourth division set aside its earlier ruling upholding a decision of the Regional Trial Court of San Fernando saying that Gonzales had no legal standing to file a motion to intervene in the case.
The CA remanded the case to RTC-Branch 42 and ordered it to resolve “with dispatch” the Pampanga lawmaker’s motion to intervene and the reconsideration of its judgment on the compromise agreement between San Fernando City government and the Premier Central, Inc., to which the Paskuhan Village property was sold in 2017 for P939 million. Maricel V. Cruz
“I am happy and thankful that the Court of Appeals has recognized my right to intervene as a lawmaker, a taxpayer and a concerned citizen,” Gonzales said.
“We can now pursue the return of this cultural heritage property to the government, the province of Pampanga and the city of San Fernando. It should not have been sold in the first place, and its sale was even grossly disadvantageous to the government,” he said.
The property, located near North Luzon Expressways and Jose Abad Santos Avenue in San Fernando, used to be the venue for Pampanga’s giant lantern festival.