VSMMC chief sued for tennis court conversion

A CIVIL suit was filed against the chief of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center for plans to convert the hospital tennis court into a parking area.

The Southern Islands Tennis Club represented by Dr. Arturo Sy and lawyer Bienvinido Jaban Jr. asked the Regional Trial Court to restrain Dr. Gerardo Aquino Jr. from “dispossessing, evicting, removing the tennis court.”

Hospital authorities have given the tennis club until today to turn over the sports facility. The group want the court to issue a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO).

In its petition for Temporary Restraining Order, the tennis club said the tennis court has been existing in the past 1980s through the financial efforts of doctors and employees of Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) who are tennis enthusiasts.

The complainants also alleged in their petition that the parking fees or “exit fees” collected from motorists using the tennis court have not been remitted to the coffers of the government.

The plaintiffs said the act of Aquino in exacting parking fees from motorists is illegal.

They said Aquino also wanted to possess the tennis court “realizing the profitability of the parking business.”

Aquino allegedly wanted to use the tennis court as an access road to Osmeña Blvd.

“Plaintiffs have a legal right to possession as it has been religiously paying its monthly rentals to the cashier of the hospital,” they said.

They said they will suffer grave irreparable injury if the actuations of Aquino won’t be restrained by the court.