The Bacolod Real Estate Development Corp. no longer has an existing contract with the city and therefore has no legal personality to file the case against its officials, Bacolod City Legal Officer Allan Zamora said yesterday.

When BREDCO assigned to Top Harbor International Inc. its right to reclaim and the right to manage and operate the seaport, Zamora said, it unilaterally terminated the Comprehensive Revised Reclamation Agreement it had entered into with the city.

This means there is no longer an existing contract between Bacolod and BREDCO, because it is no longer BREDCO operating the port and reclaiming the foreshore of the city, he said. Therefore, he added, it has no legal personality to file the case, having denied its right to operate the seaport as early as 2004, he also said.

BREDCO filed a civil case Wednesday against Bacolod City , Mayor Evelio Leonardia and eight other city officials for the passage of City Ordinance NO. 454, or the “takeover ordinance” involving the seaport operations and unfinished portion of the reclamation project at the reclamation area in Bacolod City .

The eight others are Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson, Councilors Al Victor Espino, Dindo and Kevin Ramos, Homer Bais, Greg Gasataya, Celia Flor and Roberto Rojas.

BREDCO claims that the ordinance violates the Bill of Rights of the Constitution, the law on contracts, P.D. 1084, and the Philippine Reclamation Authority Administrative order 2005-001, and is an ultra vires act of the city government.

Zamora said it was expected that BREDCO would file a case once the Mayor approves the “takeover ordinance”, and the city is prepared for it.

He said R.A. 157 or the Hilado law, which authorized the city to exclusively reclaim its foreshore lands, has never been revoked or amended by Congress. So the act of the city is not ultra vires, he said.

Zamora said BREDCO was allowed by the city to reclaim because one of its undertakings is to construct the seaport and port facilities. Without that, the city will not allow BREDCO to reclaim its foreshore.

Meanwhile, Leonardia signed Tuesday an executive order to create a task force on the pre-takeover preparations and actual takeover of port and port operations of the Bacolod Port.

The creation of the task force is pursuant to City Ordinance No. 454, Series of 2007 or the “takeover ordinance”.

In approving C.O. 454, Leonardia said the proposal for the takeover of the management and operation of the port was anchored, primarily, on the various violations by the Bacolod Real Estate Development Corp. of its contract with the city, violations that have not been corrected until today.

The executive order said there is an urgent need to create a task force that will study all the phases of the pre-takeover preparations and all the aspects of actual takeover of the port and port operation of the Bacolod Port.*CGS

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