Court sides with gov’t in case vs John Hay water firm

BAGUIO CITY—A court here has dismissed a petition for preliminary injunction filed by a Camp John Hay water company against the government administrator of the former American rest and recreation base land for ordering it to stop operations.

The John Hay Management Corp. (JHMC) had imposed a March 26 cease order on the John Hay Spring Inc. (JHSI), claiming it failed to present the operating permits for the year, but the water firm had challenged JHMC’s authority in the courts.

James Molina, JHSI president, also filed a complaint at the Office of the Ombudsman against JHMC and an official of the Department of Health Food and Drug Administration for abuse of authority when the government firm and the agency shut down its water-refilling facility.

JHSI is a subsidiary of the John Hay developer, Camp John Hay Development Corp., which is locked in a debt feud with the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).

JHMC is a subsidiary of the Bases Group of Companies owned by BCDA.

“At the onset, let this court be categorical it does not have the slightest doubt that the John Hay Management Corp. is vested with regulatory powers to carry out its duties and obligations,” Judge Antonio Reyes of the Baguio Regional Trial Court said in a resolution issued on April 30.

Reyes said JHMC’s decision to close JHSI’s water facility “cannot be considered despotic, whimsical  and without basis for the simple reason that JHSI failed to renew its operational permit which is a continuing requirement for its operations.”