Malonzo orders investigation of 2 councilors

The two council members of Caloocan City who filed a case against Crown Asia Properties are now being investigated for the "untimely" withdrawal of the case.

Mayor Reynaldo Malonzo said he ordered the city’s legal department to investigate Councilors Rizaldy Dolatre and Henry Camayo for the sudden dropping of the case against the realty firm, claiming he smells something "fishy."

"The case was very crucial to the city government because once decided by the court, it would serve as the council’s reference in enacting relative measures in the future," Malonzo said.

"But the duo’s move put the government in an annoying situation that it’s no longer sure where to stand," Malonzo explained.

Malonzo also ordered the city’s engineering office to stop Crown Asia from implementing its project unless the court comes out with a "clear ruling" on the case.

"The court’s intervention in the city council’s affairs was a bad precedent," he said, adding "any council member opposing a certain measure could just turn to it (court) in blocking the measure and later on withdraw the case without much ado."

Majority of the city council members, led by Edgar Erice, approved a measure granting Crown Asia the right to develop a property in Bagumbong, Caloocan City.

Dolatre and Camayo, however, opposed the measure claiming Crown Asia did not have the requirements to secure a development permit, and that it did not have an environmental compliance certificate, aside from the fact that it did not bother to pay a prescribed regulatory fee to the local government.

Camayo and Dolatre turned to the court and filed a case against Crown Asia and the eight councilors who approved the resolution.

But after six months of legal battle, Camayo and Dolatre withdrew the case claiming they had ran short of money to pay their lawyers to sustain the case.

Erice, on the other hand, claimed that the two opposition councilors knew from the start that court proceedings certainly need some amount of money.

Malonzo, however, doubts their claim.

"I have information that they met with some officials from Crown Asia and all of a sudden they decided to drop the case," Malonzo said.

The STAR visited Camayo and Dolatre at the city hall to shed light on Malonzo’s allegations but the two councilors were out of their respective offices.