SC ruling sought to demolish condo tower
RIZAL IN CONDO’S SHADOW The construction of the Torre de Manila, which mars the view of the Rizal Monument in Manila, continues despite calls from various groups to stop the building. EDWIN BACASMAS
MANILA, Philippines–Groups protesting the construction of a towering condominium that they say ruins the people’s view of Jose Rizal’s monument are gearing up for a legal battle to get the building demolished.
As the construction of the 46-story Torre de Manila continued, the Knights of Rizal told the Senate on Thursday it would file a petition for injunction in the Supreme Court against the building.
Wrapping up a hearing on the condominium’s impact on the country’s heritage, Sen. Pia Cayetano recommended that the groups consult acting Solicitor General Florin Hilbay on possible legal options.
The options, she said, could involve getting the condominium demolished.
“Within the next two weeks, we will file the case to permanently stop the construction,” lawyer Willie Jasarino, member of the Knights of Rizal, said in an interview.
Pressed if this was geared to its eventual demolition, he said: “We’re shooting for the moon. We will ask for that.”
Consensus favors demolition
Elizabeth Espino, executive director of the National Parks Development Committee (NPDC), said the view among the groups favored demolition.
“That seems to be the consensus,” she said in an interview.
Cayetano recommended this should be one of the options of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), NPDC and the Knights of Rizal, among others.
Cayetano advised them to consult the solicitor general.
“My recommendation to them is explore (their) options,” she said. “If our cultural heritage, these national treasures, are desecrated or the … vista points … cannot be secured and protected unless it’s demolished, then that is an option,” she told reporters.
‘Terror de Manila’
But she added this was an option they had to study “on their own,” saying she could only make recommendations. “That’s outside my territory.”
Isidro Consunji, chair of DMCI Homes, builder of the condominium, did not respond to the committee’s invitation to attend the hearing.
The Senate committee on education, arts and culture, chaired by Cayetano, opened an inquiry into the issue after netizens and conservationists raised a hue and cry about it.
The condominium is being built right across Rizal Park.
An online Change.org petition and netizens had opposed the condominium, derisively calling it “Terror de Manila” and “Pambansang Photobomb” because it would ruin the iconic sight line of the national shrine.
28 more floors
At the hearing, Espino of NPDC, which oversees Rizal Park and Paco Park, asked the committee what could be done to stop the building’s continued rise at the rate of three stories a week.
She said that DMCI had 28 more floors to build.
Cayetano suggested that the NPDC, NHCP, NCCA and the Knights of Rizal meet with the solicitor general soonest and “discuss options how to find a way to stop this.”
After all, the solicitor general would represent the interest of the government, she said.
It was at this point that Jasarino of the Knights of Rizal disclosed that they would file a petition for injunction with a “prayer” for the issuance of a temporary restraining order.
Political will
Former Tourism Secretary Gemma Cruz-Araneta, a descendant of Rizal, said she was perplexed why the builders could not apply their appreciation for heritage sites abroad here in the country.
“The owners of these big companies, they went to the best schools in the Philippines and abroad. They’re the ones who travel abroad very often. And they’re the ones who marvel at the conservation works done in Europe, even in China, in Malaysia, Singapore. Why can’t they apply it here?” she said.
Cayetano said this was a matter of “political will.”
Limited to 7 floors
At the hearing, Cayetano observed that DMCI committed “bad faith” when it continued to build the condominium from 2012 to 2014 when its zoning permit limited construction to seven stories in terms of floor area.
Citing the testimony of resource persons, she said DMCI secured a zoning permit in June 2012 that allowed them to build only up to seven stories if the gross floor area were computed.
And DMCI was allowed to deviate from its earlier permit in an exemption granted by the Manila Zoning Board of Adjustments and approved by the city council last January, Cayetano said.
“So that means that from June 2012 to January 2014, they were in bad faith. So to me the law is very clear, if you are in bad faith, you pay for the damages of whatever cost you incurred and whatever further damages to the environment are and to other persons,” Cayetano told reporters.
Asked if she would recommend the prosecution of DMCI, she said: “If I recommend prosecution, which most likely I will, I will cite existing laws to that extent.”
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