IF A COURT decision is any indication of a warning against vigilant citizens, cases in relation to the flood control scandal would all end in trash bins unless the complainant is well enough to pay filing fees.
In a decision that was rendered on April 15 that was only made public yesterday, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court dismissed a P1-billion civil case against former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, former Ako Bicol partylist Rep. Zaldy Co, and Quezon City 5th District Rep. Patrick Michael Vargas has been dismissed after the complainant failed to pay a filing fee.
According to the court, it never acquired jurisdiction over the case, adding that the complainant — former Quezon City Councilor Antonio Enrile Inton Jr., had been notified of the unpaid fee as early as February 20.
The court said the filing fee would have given the court the procedural opening it needed to walk away from the case entirely.
“This court finds that [it] has not acquired jurisdiction over the case due to the plaintiffs’ failure to pay the filing fee as computed by the Office of the Clerk of Court. Wherefore, this case is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction,” reads part of the court ruling.
The complaint was filed in December last year.
Inton accused Romualdez, Co, Vargas, and unnamed DPWH officials and private contractors of botching flood control projects in Novaliches, Quezon City.
The case has been brought to the Court of Appeals via a petition for certiorari, directly challenging the RTC’s ruling.
