Pampanga 3rd district Rep. Aurelio "Dong" Gonzales Jr. (Facebook)

House Senior Deputy Speaker and Pampanga 3rd district Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr. says he is thankful for the decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) to recognize his right to intervene in the alleged “irregular” sale of the 9.3-hectare Paskuhan Village in San Fernando, Pampanga.

“I am happy and thankful that the Court of Appeals has recognized my right to intervene as a lawmaker, a taxpayer and a concerned citizen,” Gonzales said in a statement on Friday, June 21.

In a decision rendered last May 23, the CA fourth division set aside its earlier ruling that upheld the decision of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 42 of San Fernando, which determined that Gonzales had no legal standing to file a motion to intervene in the case.

The CA has remanded the case to RTC-Branch 42 and ordered it to resolve “with dispatch”.

Gonzales previously filed a motion to intervene and to reconsider the court’s judgment on the compromise agreement between the city of San Fernando and Premier Central Inc. (PCI), to which the Paskuhan Village property was sold in 2017 for P939 million.

“We can now pursue the return of this cultural heritage property to the government, the province of Pampanga and the city of San Fernando,” the lawmaker said.

“It should not have been sold in the first place, and its sale was even grossly disadvantageous to the government,” he stressed.

The property, which is also known as Hilaga, is predominantly used as a venue for Pampanga’s Giant Lantern Festival.

In its May 23 decision, the CA said there were “glaring irregularities in the manner in which the RTC rendered its judgement".

The RTC-Branch 42 was found to not only delay resolving Gonzales’ motions (for intervention), but they were not resolved at all before the judgment was rendered as records revealed.

Gonzales filed his original motion on Jan. 16, 2020, followed by another petition on Jan. 31, and a third on Feb. 21, also in 2020.

The CA said the irregularities raised “serious doubt” about when the RTC-Branch 42 actually decided on the case.

“As such, the better and more prudent action would be to treat Gonzales’ urgent motion as having been duly filed before the RTC. Thus, the RTC deviated from its mandate when it prematurely decided on the case and rendered judgment without resolving a pending incident,” it said.

The Pampanga lawmaker was established to have acted “within a reasonable period” in availing the remedy of intervention to question the compromise agreement between the local government of San Fernando and the Paskuhan Village buyer.

The CA noted that the “substantive issues raised by Gonzales in his petition, such as susceptibility of the controversy to compromise and the authority of the OSG (Office of the Solicitor General) to enter into a compromise agreement (in behalf of the government), should have prompted the RTC to rule upon the urgent motion instead of ignoring or sidestepping it".

Under the compromise agreement, San Fernando would get free of charge 5,000 square meters of the 9.3 hectares sold to PCI and a two-story building.

As the site of Paskuhan Village, San Fernando is also popularly known as the "Christmas capital of the Philippines"