Press club’s sale of mural legal–Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals (CA) has affirmed the legality of the controversial sale of a historic Vicente Manansala mural that officers of the National Press Club (NPC) sold to a private individual four years ago.

The appellate court threw out the motion of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) seeking to nullify the sale and claiming that the NPC could not sell the wall painting because the government pension fund owned the building and wanted to recover costs.

The appellate court, however, partially granted the GSIS’s appeal to overturn a July 16, 2009, ruling of Pasay City Regional Trial Court Branch 112 directing the GSIS to donate the building in Intramuros, Manila, to the press club.

In its July 25 resolution, the Court of Appeals said the lower court did not have jurisdiction over the case and that it committed abuse of discretion when it failed to collect a docket fee from the NPC.

Null and void

“(W)e hold that the instant petition for certiorari under Rule 65 is proper as the court acted without jurisdiction…, therefore, its order directing petitioner (GSIS) to donate the subject property to NPC is null and void,” the court said.

The 20-page ruling was penned by Associate Justice Rodil Zalameda and concurred in by Associate Justices Amelita Tolentino and Normandie Pizzaro.

The court said the ruling was handed down “without prejudice to the recourse of either party to determine the respective rights and obligations of the parties regarding the disputed land and building.”

‘Movable object’

In upholding the press club’s ownership claim over the contested mural, the appellate court said the NPC was right when it pointed out that the national artist’s masterpiece was a “movable object” which was not meant to be part of the building’s wall.

The NPC argued that the artwork’s “Freedom of the Press” theme evidently showed its ties to the club.

By filing a writ of replevin, the appellate court said the GSIS virtually admitted that the mural was indeed the property of the NPC since the government agency’s petition sought to recover personal properties and damages.

“It is without doubt that the mural is a movable property—a personal property which can be taken by NPC, whether or not it owns the building,” the court ruling read.

“Being the owner of the mural, NPC has all the right to dispose of the same in whatever manner it desires,” it said, adding:

“(The) NPC cannot be made liable, in any way, in exercising what is merely a propriety act.”

Sold for P10M

According to former NPC president Neal Cruz, many journalists were taken aback when they learned that the NPC, then headed by Manila Bulletin reporter Roy Mabasa, had sold the signature mural for P10 million to an unnamed art collector through Heritage Galleries.

According to Cruz: The GSIS, led by its then chair Winston Garcia, questioned the transaction, claiming the state-owned insurance firm was the legal owner of the mural since it was an “immovable part” of the building that it owned.

Invoking its ownership claims, the NPC said the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos issued a letter of instruction in 1977 directing the GSIS to donate the contested building and the lot on which it sits to the press club.

Aside from civil cases, the GSIS also sued several NPC officials for the “theft” of the artwork, but the Department of Justice dismissed the criminal complaint last year.

The sale of the press club’s signature mural divided the press.

Mario and Odette Alcantara, owners of Heritage Arts and Antiques had brokered the sale of the Manansala mural to a mystery buyer.