The contract between the Bureau of Customs and businessman Rodolfo C. Reta on the use of his container yard as Designated Examination Area (DEA) to scan suspected contraband items passing through Sasa Port in Davao City has not been legally revoked.
This in effect is the recent final order of the Regional Trial Court, Branch 25, in Manila, National Capital Judicial Region in compliance with the Court of Appeals’ January 14, 2014 ruling dismissing the petition of the BOC to declare its contract with Reta as terminated ( “Petition for Judicial Confirmation of Just Cause for Revocation of Agreement”) and later upheld by the Supreme Court on June 18, 2014. The resolution became final and executory per entry of judgment issued by the highest tribunal on March 11, 2015 in G.R. No. 210959.
RTC Manila Branch 25 presiding judge Marlina M. Manuel ordered the BOC revocation case dismissed on February 18, 2016 “in compliance with the Decision of Court of Appeals dated July 31, 2014 and Supreme Court Resolution dated March 11,2015.”
The agreement in question was signed by Reta and then BOC Commissioner Napoleon Morales in 2009 covering 25 years.
The ruling, copy of which was received by the lawyers of Reta only this year, runs counter to an earlier published statement of Davao Customs Collector Erastus Sandino Austria quoting an opinion of former Solicitor General Franklin Jardeleza claiming that the contract between Reta and the BOC had been legally terminated.
In a recent press conference, Austria impressed upon Davao media practitioners that the former Solgen’s opinion is one reason the Davao Customs cannot readily grant the request of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio to reopen the DEA inside Reta’s Aquarius Container Yard and use the P250-million x-ray machine as one of the control points of the city’s security system to combat threats of terrorism, smuggling and illegal drugs. Mayor Inday Sara’s request was supported by resolutions passed by the City Peace and Order Council and the City Tourism Council.
According to Ateneo de Davao Law Dean Manuel Quibod, lead counsel of Reta’s legal team, Jardeleza’s opinion has no controlling effect being just an opinion not upheld by the court.
In television and other media interviews, Quibod branded the claims of Austria, a lawyer, as “deceptive.”
Unbeknownst to Collector Austria, said Dean Quibod, is the fact that on November 24, 2015 when Reta filed an instant motion to consider the case closed and terminated, “the BOC, thru the Office of the Solicitor General, in lieu of comment, filed a Manifestation manifesting that dismissal of the instant case has become final and executory in an Entry of Judgment dated March 11, 2015 which was issued by the Supreme Court G. R. No. 210959.”
This case and several related court actions between Reta and the BOC stemmed from the sudden closure of the DEA operated by Reta sometime on February 10, 2010 by then acting Customs Collector Anju Nereo Castigador who alleged that the businessman refused to render lift-on/lift-off services for the scanning of a big shipment of smuggled cargoes in the DEA where the x-ray machine had been installed for the purpose.
Reta denied Castigador’s accusation, saying that on the contrary, his lawyer had earlier gone to the office of Castigador to suggest that a scanning and stripping be done on a big shipment suspected to be smuggled rice from Thailand which was later proven to be true.
Charging that Castigador had no authority to arbitrarily terminate his contract with the BOC, Reta also filed a petition in court for injunction.
The dispute generated a flurry of other cases between the two parties. One of the cases was the BOC’s “Petition for Judicial Confirmation of Just Cause for Revocation of Agreement”, an action initiated by then Commissioner Napoleon Morales before RTC Manila Branch 25. The case went to RTC, the CA and finally the Supreme Court.
On the other hand, one of the cases filed by businessman Reta against the BOC and its officials was “breach of contract” still pending in a RTC Davao branch. This case is reportedly scheduled to be tried sometime this month.
Earlier, the complaints Reta had filed with the Ombudsman resulted in the dismissal of Castigador and a BOC acting wharfinger from the service and the suspension of two other employees.
Likewise earlier, the embattled businessman, through favorable rulings of the courts, also stopped two attempts of the BOC to withdraw the costly x-ray machine from the DEA located inside his container yard.
Meanwhile, Reta, through his legal team, stated that he is open to an amicable settlement with the BOC leading to the reopening of the DEA and use of the x-ray machine as requested by Mayor Carpio through resolutions passed by the CPOC and City Tourism Council.
Customs-Reta contract not revoked, says Court
The controverted agreement between the Bureau of Customs and Davao City businessman Rodolfo C. Reta on the use of the latter’s container yard as Designated Examination Area (DEA) wherein a P250-million x-ray machine can examine port cargo suspected to be contraband goods is still in effect as it has not been legally terminated.
The status of the contract was clarified in a series of rulings by the Regional Trial Court, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, culminating in an order dismissing the case entitled “Petition for Judicial Confirmation of Just Cause for Revocation of Agreement” by the RTC Manila Branch 25, where it was originally filed by the Customs bureau some seven years ago.
In a ruling issued on February 18, 2016, or about six years after the controversial closure of the DEA, RTC Branch 25 presiding judge Marlina M. Manuel in Manila ordered the BOC revocation case dismissed “in compliance with the Decision of Court of Appeals dated July 31, 2014 and Supreme Court Resolution dated March 11,2015.”
The ruling contradicted the view of Davao Customs Collector Erastus Sandino Austria that an opinion of a former solicitor general (solgen) that the contract had been terminated. The opinion is reportedly being used by Austria as a reason for his hesitation in granting a request of Mayor Sara D. Carpio that the DEA be reopened and used as part of the security system of Davao City in battling the threats of terrorism, smuggling and illegal drugs trading.
The mayor’s request was made sometime in August after the City Peace and Order Council (CPOC) and City Tourism Council passed similar resolutions on the matter.
Mayor Sara showed impatience and irritation when asked to comment on Austria’s statements, saying that the Customs official did not seem to feel the urgency of Davao’s security situation.
Austria’s view was also criticized by the legal team for being deceptive. Ateneo de Davao University Law Dean Manuel Quibod, head of businessman Reta’s legal team, said Austria’s pronouncements were “deceptive.”
He chided the Customs official for invoking the opinion of the Solgen which has “no controlling effect” being just an opinion. He said previous Customs collectors and BOC commissioners before Austria became Davao port collector did not even invoke the opinion.
The court declaration clarifying that the contract between BOC and Reta is still in effect is the latest of the victories of Reta in his seven-year protracted legal skirmishes with the BOC, since the DEA inside his container yard was illegally padlocked.
Reta’s first triumph was when the Ombudsman dismissed lawyer Nereo Anju Castigador, the former Customs collector responsible for illegally closing the DEA, and another Customs official from the service, while two other BOC employees involved in the case were suspended by the Ombudsman.
Reta likewise succeeded two times in getting a court order stopping attempts of the BOC to take the costly x-ray machine out of the DEA in his container yard.
Other trumped-up cases conjured by his detractors but which failed to stick on the businessman included a lifestyle check on his alleged unexplained wealth and charges that he poked a high-powered gun on somebody while the DEA was still operating.
The court verdict on the status of the contract between Reta and the BOC came out just months before the trial on the charges filed by Reta against the BOC and those responsible of suddenly padlocking the DEA for breach of contract.
This comes on the heels of a pronouncement by the camp of Reta that they are open to an amicable settlement with the BOC, saying that there is no legal impediment for such a settlement.
