A cease and desist order (CDO) issued by Gov. Gwen Garcia to implementers of the BRT project who are constructing bus terminals along Osmeña Boulevard in Cebu City, directly in front of the Capitol building, has caused buzz online.
Some legal minds raised the question: does a local government unit such as the Cebu Provincial Government have authority to issue a CDO against a project implemented by the National Government?
The Department of Transportation is the agency implementing the BRT in Cebu City.
On Thursday, February 29, Provincial Legal Officer Donato Villa Jr., in a media conference, clarified that the CDO stems not from the Capitol in its capacity as an LGU, but from the Capitol invoking its rights as a legal owner of subject property — in this case, the Osmeña Boulevard lots on which the BRT and its bus terminals are being built.
“It’s the right of the Province to ask anybody causing us harm to issue a cease and desist order,” Atty. Villa said.
The lawyer pointed to Article 429 of the Civil Code of the Philippines as legal basis. The said article provides:
“The owner or lawful possessor of a thing has the right to exclude any person from the enjoyment and disposal thereof. For this purpose, he may use such force as may be reasonably necessary to repel or prevent an actual or threatened unlawful physical invasion or usurpation of his property.”
The Cebu City District Engineering Office had declared that DPWH, which built the Osmeña Blvd in post-war era, encroached on at least 30 Capitol-owned lots — of which only six were declared as road lots — when it extended the allotted road width for Osmeña Blvd from 20 meters to 24 meters, with an encroachment of 2 meters on both sides of the road.
The provincial government bought these lots, which include the Capitol Compound as well as the stretch of Osmeña Blvd to Fuente Circle, from the Cebu Heights Company Inc. in the early 1930s. | IPA