How Governor Rene G. Espina and Atty. Pablo P. Garcia saved provincial lots from donation

On February 4, 1964, while then incumbent Governor Rene Gandiongco Espina was on official business in Manila, the vice governor, Priscillano Almendras and three members of the Provincial Board, enacted Resolution No. 188, donating to the City of Cebu 210 province-owned lots all located in the City of Cebu, with an aggregate area of over 380 hectares, and authorizing the vice governor to sign the deed of donation on behalf of the province.

The deed of donation was immediately executed in behalf of the Province of Cebu by then Vice Governor Almendras and immediately accepted in behalf of the City of Cebu by Mayor Sergio "Serging" Chiong Veloso Osmeña, Jr.  The document was prepared and notarized by a private lawyer. The donation was later approved by the Office of the President through Executive Secretary Juan Cancio.

Upon his return from Manila, Governor Espina (a lawyer and placed in the top 20 of the bar examination that he took) denounced as illegal and immoral the action of his colleagues in donating practically all the patrimonial property of the province of Cebu, considering that the latter's income was less than one fourth of that of the City of Cebu.

To prevent the sale or disposition of the lots, the officers and members of the Cebu Mayor's League (in behalf of their respective municipalities along with some taxpayers, including Atty. Pablo P. Garcia), filed a case seeking to have the donation declared illegal, null and void. Made defendants in the suit were Mayor Serging Osmeña Jr. and the Cebu provincial officials responsible for the donations. The case was raffled to Branch VI of the Court of First Instance of Cebu. On May 1965, the court dismissed the case on the ground that the plaintiffs were not real parties in interest of the case that they did not have the legal capacity to sue.

Then, Mayor Serging Osmeña Jr. announced that he would borrow funds from the Philippine National Bank and would use the donated lots as collaterals. Governor Espina apprehensive that the lots would eventually be lost by the Province of Cebu decided to go to court.  Espina then engaged the services of Atty. Pablo P. Garcia of Barili (placed 3rd in the bar examinations).

Garcia then filed an annulment of the deed of donation with an application for the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction, which application was granted on the same day, August 6, 1965 (coincidentally a day after the Province of Cebu Foundation Day). The complaint was later amended to include Cebu City Carlos P. Cuizon (also a lawyer) the successor of Mayor Serging Osmeña who resigned as mayor on September 9, 1965 to ran as senator.

On January 31, 1973, Atty. Alfredo G. Baguia, the Provincial Attorney informed the court that the Province of Cebu through its new governor, Dr. Osmundo G. Rama, and the Provincial Board (Leonardo Enad, Guillermo Legazpi and Rizalina Migallos) were joining or uniting with former Governor Espina (who was elected senator in 1969, it was under his administration that the Mactan Bridge was constructed, it was he who had it designed and constructed being the Secretary of Public Works and Communications).

On December 4, 1974, a compromise agreement was reached between the Province of Cebu and the City of Cebu. It was agreed that the City of Cebu to return and deliver to the Province of Cebu all the lots enumerated in second paragraph of the donation. However eleven lots were retained to the City Government.

Atty. Pablo P. Garcia authority as counsel in behalf of the Province of Cebu was questioned and that he should not be awarded of his attorney's fees. Eventually, Judge Alfredo Marigomen rendered judgment on May 30, 1979 declaring that Garcia is entitled to recover attorney's fees. The Province of Cebu appealed the decision of the Court of First Instance and went to the Intermediate Appellate Court. The IAC on October 18, 1985 affirmed the ruling of the Court of First Instance. The case reached the Supreme Court and on January 29, 1987 ruled again in favor of Atty. Pablo P. Garcia, the private lawyer who saved the provincial lots. Garcia later became a member of the Provincial Board of Governor Rene Espina, then as congressman and governor of Cebu.