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Gibo, Gwen to face plaint on Apas lots

The Cebu City government will file a complaint against Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro and other national government officials over its recent agreement reverting the military reservation area in barangay Apas back to the Capitol.

City Legal Officer Joseph Bernaldez said the petition for injunction this morning, seeking to nullify the agreement signed by Teodoro and Garcia last October.

Also included in the complaint are Vice President Noli de Castro who chairs the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and its officials as well as officials of the Presidential Commission on Urban Poor and the National Housing Authority.

Bernaldez said Apas barangay officials and the Alliance of Barangay Apas Community Association (Abaca) are also plaintiffs in the case.

Teodoro and Garcia signed a Memorandum of Agreement that turned over the area occupied by the Central Command (Centcom) to the provincial government.

In questioning the MOA, the city would cite as basis the Cebu City ordinance declaring certain areas as socialized housing sites.

City officials said this is also in accordance with Presidential Proclamation 409 which identified portions of the Centcom lots in Apas as socialized housing sites.

At least 200 families in Apas held a vigil last month to protest the turnover of the Centcom lots to the Capitol.

In a recent meeting with Abaca officials, Garcia assured the residents that they wouldn't be displaced and that a suitable relocation site would be reserved for them.

But some of the residents objected to the proposed relocation site.

The complaints would also ask the court to allow the preservation and improvements of the Cebu City Zoo in barangay Kalunasan whose site is also being contested by the Capitol.

They would also ask the court to bar the Capitol from evicting government agencies like the Technical Education, Skills and Development Authority (Tesda) from the lots they purchased under the Friar Lands Act and developing said lands for commercial purposes.

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