The Regional Trial Court has again reset the hearing on the petition for the nullification filed by SM Prime Holdings Inc. on the contract for the sale and purchase of the 7.7 hectare property of the provincial government to Ayala Land Inc. that was scheduled Friday to October 5.

This came after the legal counsel of the provincial officials, Mary Ann Lamis again filed a petition to reset the hearing due to health reasons, Vince Bayhon, SMPHI lawyer, said.

SMPHI had filed a petition last year before the Bacolod Regional Trial Court seeking the annulment of any negotiated sale and lease by the provincial government property to ALI, and for SMPHI to be declared the winning bidder of the July 7 bidding.

Bayhon said Merlita Caellan of the Provincial Assessor's Office will be presented at the witness stand during the resumption of the hearing on Friday.

In the case it filed against Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. and the members of the Provincial Award and Appraisals Committee, SMPHI has been insisting that they won in the first bidding conducted in July 7, 2011 for the sale and purchase of the said capitol properties but it was declared a failure by the provincial Bids and Awards Committee.

SMPHI has also a pending Motion for Reconsideration before the Court of Appeals decision on the injunction they had filed.

It has also written COA about its pending case pertaining to the properties of the provincial government.

Bayhon said that they have also received information that COA was supposed to come out with the decision last May 22.

But until now, there is no development at the COA on to the contract submitted by the Capitol on its land deal with Ayala, he said.

Meanwhile, Judge Estefanio Libutan of the Regional Trial Court Branch 50 has set another hearing on the case on November 9.*CGS

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