Legal squabble over Makati condominium finally settled

A local court has finally ended the yearslong ownership dispute over a condominium in Makati City’s central business district as it returned the property management of the residential building to its previous operator.

In a four-page decision, Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 147 Presiding Judge Ronald Moreno granted the petition of Greenstone Serviced Residences Makati Inc. which questioned the legal authority of Optimax International Corp. and Quadrillon Property Management Inc. to operate the Infinity Tower condominium.

Nearly violent

Moreno also recognized Archinet International Inc. and Marvin Elton Mendoza as intervenors in the legal squabble, which nearly turned violent.

In his decision dated March 6, the judge opted to lift and dissolve the writ of preliminary injunction which allowed Optimax and Quadrillon to manage the condominium in April 2013.

Falsification of documents

Moreno noted that Joaquin Rodriquez Jr., the representative of Optimax, and his father, Joaquin Sr., had been found guilty by Makati Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 62 in November 2017 of falsifying the property management agreement between Optimax and Infinity Tower.

“With this supervening event, said decision now puts in doubt the authenticity of the property management agreement from which the writ of preliminary injunction was based,” Moreno ruled.

He said that while the decision finding the Rodriguezes guilty of falsification of public documents has yet to attain finality, it already made their ownership claim “doubtful” as it appeared they did not “have a clear legal right” to manage the condominium.