IT IS premature for the city government of Taguig to celebrate a recent court decision saying it has jurisdiction over the Fort Bonifacio district, a Makati City official said Friday.
Lawyer Michael Arthur Camiña, city legal officer and spokesman of Makati Mayor Abigail Binay, said there was no basis for Taguig officials to claim that the recent decision of the Court of Appeals “effectively hands over the Bonifacio Global City to Taguig.”
The Court of Appeals did not rule that Taguig is the rightful owner of BGC. The dismissal of Makati’s appeal was based on a technicality and did not overturn its earlier decision upholding Makati as the rightful owner of the disputed territory,Camiña said.
The appellate court’s Sixth Division, in its ruling dated July 30, 2013, upheld Makati’s jurisdiction over the more than 729-hectare portion of Fort Bonifacio.
The court ordered Taguig “to immediately cease and desist from exercising jurisdiction within the disputed area and return the same to Makati” after noting that Taguig failed to present evidence to support its claim.
“The last CA decision expressly granted Makati jurisdiction over BGC based on historical facts and evidence. To nullify that ruling based on a mere technicality is robbing the Makatizens of what is rightfully theirs,” Camiña said.
He said the order of dismissal by the CA was in conflict with the decision of the Supreme Court that merely ordered the previous lawyers of Makati to pay a fine.
“The Supreme Court ruling penalized previous Makati lawyers for forum shopping. It did not order the reversal of the CA’s 2013 ruling in favor of Makati,” Camiña said.
In its 37-page ruling written by Associate Justice Marlene Gonzales-Sison, the appellate court dismissed Taguig’s complaint against Makati in 1993 in a Pasig Regional Trial Court for lack of merit and confirmed that the disputed area covering some nine villages were within the territorial jurisdiction of Makati City.
The 2013 CA ruling lifted a preliminary injunction issued by the lower court in July 1994 that had earlier prevented Makati from exercising jurisdiction over the villages Post Proper Northside and Post Proper Southside, which are located in the so-called Inner Fort area of the former military camp.
Aside from the two villages, the disputed area also covers portions of the villages Cembo, South Cembo, East Rembo, West Rembo, Comembo, Pembo and Pitogo.
Then Makati mayor Jun Binay offered a revenue-sharing arrangement with Taguig under a special administrative body that would govern the Bonifacio Global City area out of the city’s desire to help the people of Taguig.
“We want to show that this is not about revenues. We simply want to get back what is rightfully ours,” he said.
Taguig officials, however, rejected Makati’s attempts for an amicable resolution to the dispute.
Following the issuance of the CA ruling in 2013, a number of incidents were reported involving armed Taguig personnel harassing Makati personnel as the latter tried to resume the delivery of basic services in the two villages.