CA Rules McKinley part of Makati - TopicsExpress

CA Rules McKinley part of Makati Written by Benjamin B. Pulta Monday, 05 August 2013 08:00 The Court of Appeals (CA) has held that portions of Fort Andres Bonifacio, formerly called Fort William Mckinley, are within the territory and boundary limits of Makati City. In a 37-page decision by Justice Marlene Gonzales-Sison and concurred in by Justices Hakim Abdulwahid and Edwin Sorongon, the CA Sixth Division rendered a new decision on the disputed area consisting of 729.15 hectares, thereby granted the appeal filed by the Makati City and set aside the decision and order rendered by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 153 of Pasig City on July 8, 2011 and Dec. 19, 2011. The appeals court declared Presidential Proclamation 2475 and Proclamation 518 as constitutional and valid. This law pertains to the law which transferred to the City of Makati certain parts of Fort Bonifacio that were allegedly within the boundary of the Municipality of Taguig, despite the absence of authority on the part of the President and without the benefit of a plebiscite as required by applicable provisions of the Constitution. The territorial dispute started in November 1993 when the City of Taguig initiated its complaint before the lower court asking to declare the area as within its jurisdiction until it reached the appeals court. In ruling, the CA dismissed the complaint of Taguig for lack of merit and (confirmed) that the disputed area comprising of the Embo Barangays and Inner Fort Barangays (Barangay Post Proper Northside and Barangay Post Proper Southside) in Fort Bonifacio are within the territorial jurisdiction of Makati City. According to the appellate tribunal, Taguig deliberately failed to mention that the Embo Barangays, as well as the Inner Fort Barangays were already in existence prior to Republic Act (RA) 3590. Thus, the court held that these barangays automatically came under provisions on RA 3590 without need of having to be recreated under that law. The court lifted the preliminary injunction issued by the lower court against Makati by its order dated July 15, 1994, as modified by the (CA) in resolution dated Sept. 11, 1995. It also ordered Taguig to immediately cease and desist from exercising jurisdiction within the disputed area and return the same to Makati and (ordered it) to pay the cost of suit.