Case vs Southern Leyte gov malicious and sham

This refers to the article titled “Palace asked to suspend Southern Leyte governor,” (News, 11/28/14).

The Office of the President and the provincial prosecutor of Southern Leyte are expected to junk outright the administrative and criminal complaints filed by a certain Winsor Calamba against me and some police and environment officials because these charges constitute out-and-out malicious and sham prosecution, in the nature of a “strategic lawsuit against public participation” as defined under Section 1, Rule 6 of the Rules of Procedure of Environmental Cases (Supreme Court AM No. 09-6-8). The complaints are meant to harass, vex and exert undue pressure and/or stifle the legal recourse I have taken against the complainants in enforcing environmental laws, rules and regulations as well as in protecting the environment and in asserting the rights of the province under Section 16 of the Local Government Code of 1991 (Republic Act No. 7160). “As a body politic endowed with government functions, a local government unit has the duty to ensure the quality of the environment” (Republic vs City of Davao, GR No. 148622, Sept. 12, 2002, 388 SCRA 691).

The workers of the sand-and-gravel business were illegally extracting minerals, an act punishable under the Mining Law (RA 7942). Thus, the police and environment officers who caught them in the act were obliged under the law to make a warrantless arrest there and then. Otherwise, the officers would have been guilty of dereliction of duty.

As regards the revenue code, this was duly enacted by virtue of the power vested upon the province by RA 7160. The code is not contrary to any national law, including the Mining Law which does not expressly amend, much less repeal, any part of RA 7160. In fact, no part of the revenue code has been duly assailed in accordance with the procedure prescribed by RA 7160, including the filing of the prescribed protest, if any, with the Department of Justice, among other administrative remedies.

As for the governor’s authority to issue permits for sand-and-gravel extraction or mining activities, the same is clearly provided in the province’s ordinance and the Local Government Code, and this has been sustained by the Supreme Court in the landmark case of Province of Cagayan, etc., et al. vs Lara (GR No. 188500, July 24, 2013).

Calamba faces disbarment and contempt-of-court suits for promoting malicious prosecution and filing sham pleadings in court.

The Court of Appeals, meanwhile, has stopped the Southern Leyte Regional Trial Court’s injunction against the province and governor upon our petition assailing the RTC’s orders for grave abuse of authority, particularly for violating the Supreme Court’s kalikasan rules, in the case brought by businessmen behind illegal sand-and-gravel operations that have aggravated destructive flooding.—ROGER G. MERCADO, governor, Southern Leyte