|
Rizal
Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) on Friday asked the
Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Makati to deny the motion
to expunge from the records the “sham pleadings” and
motion to quash subpoena filed by Liberty Telecom
Holdings Inc. and its subsidiaries Liberty Broadcasting
Network Inc. and Skyphone Logistics Inc. for being
unverified.
The bank
said Liberty Telecoms’ claims are misleading, and too
unsubstantial, and thus undeserving of the court’s
consideration.
The
motions filed by RCBC need not be verified, said the
bank, because there is nothing in the interim rules of
procedure on corporation rehab that mandates the
verification requirement to be jurisdictional. It also
said that verification even in initial pleadings is only
a formal requirement.
“Petitioner’s general and deliberately evasive sweeping
claim that verification is allegedly jurisdictional is
glaring erroneous and, in fact, misleading,” RCBC said.
It
added: “Verification is a formal, not jurisdictional,
requisite. Verification is mainly intended to secure and
assurance that the allegations made are done in good
faith or are true and correct and not mere speculation.”
Liberty
had said that RCBC’s motion is a “sham pleading” because
there is no proof that the National Telecommunications
Commission has granted and allocated the 700-MHz
frequency spectrum from Liberty Broadband to Smart
Broadband Inc., the wireless broadband unit of Smart
Communications Inc.
But RCBC
said since
Liberty was already aware of Smart Broadband’s application, it
should have “move heaven and earth” to secure and ensure
that its frequency spectrum is not in any way
compromised.
“Petitioners did not inform the court that that their
frequency is being threatened by [Smart Broadband’s]
application,” said RCBC. |
