Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) General Manager Joey Medina was dismayed over the Court of Appeals’s (CA) recent ruling on a property being used by a garbage hauling firm in Taguig City.
The CA ordered the LLDA on August 29 to vacate a lakeside property along C6 Road, Taguig City, and return possession of the lot to solid-waste contractor IPM Construction and Development Corp.
According to the LLDA, the injunction “was issued to stop a legitimate environmental activity.”
In a news statement issued on Thursday, the LLDA said, “The Rules of Procedure for Environmental Cases clearly states that only the Supreme Court can issue a temporary restraining order or writ of preliminary injunction against lawful actions of government agencies that enforce environmental laws or prevent violations thereof.”
Medina asserted that the 16th Division, to which the case was raffled, “seemed to have issued the resolution hastily and did not even discuss the merits of the arguments presented by LLDA, through the representation of the Office of the Solicitor General.”
He, however, maintained that the resolution “is just a temporary setback and LLDA will not waver in its ongoing campaign to protect and develop the vast shoreland area of Laguna Lake.”
He added the LLDA legal team and the Office of the Solicitor General are now preparing to file a motion for reconsideration of the CA resolution.
The CA resolution came on the heels of a petition by IPM at the appellate court after LLDA closed down the 37-hectare property being used by the garbage hauling firm as a dumping site.