Zamora wants judge to inhibit in F Channel issue
BACOLOD CITY -- City Legal Officer Atty. Allan Zamora yesterday filed a motion for reconsideration with motion for voluntary inhibition after Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 53 Judge Pepito Gellada issued an order for the re-opening of F Channel 13.
F Channel was closed upon the order of Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia for lack of a business permit and underpayment of business taxes.
On his 19-page motion, Zamora said that the honorable judge cannot grant said petition for certiorari because on July 17, 2008, the petitioner F-Channel filed an amended complaint which superseded his original complaint.
Atty. Zamora said that it is on the submission of respondent that the court committed a very serious error when it issued the order dated July 22, 2008 in the original petition for certiorari under Section 1, Rule 65, 1997 Rules of Civil Procedures. "The original petition was already superseded and/or withdrawn upon the filing of the amended complaint on July 17, 2008, such act of honorable court, with due respect, may even be considered as gross ignorance of the law," Zamora added.
On the other hand, Zamora believed that F Channel cannot re-open its business because they failed to secure a Mayor's Permit which is a requirement under Section 25, City Ordinance No. 93-001, Series of 1993, otherwise known as the Revenue Code of the City of Bacolod of 1993.
Zamora emphasized that the issuance of Mayor's Permit is not a property in the constitutional sense or even in the nature of a contract, but is simply a special privilege.