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THE CEBU provincial government plans to install a security camera fronting the building of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) inside the Capitol compound.
Capitol security consultant Byron Garcia said the provincial government wanted to monitor activities there after receiving reports that the canteen on the building?s first floor turned into a drinking and karaoke joint at night.
He said there were reports that the canteen was a venue for male lawyers to meet ?female friends.?
?This is a security measure,? said Garcia of his proposal, which Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia approved yesterday.
The issue over the IBP?s use of the building started when the Capitol imposed an hourly pay parking scheme for vehicles that park anywhere in the compound.
Lawyers, who work at the IBP building, sought exemption from paying the parking fee.
The Capitol, however, cited IBP?s alleged violations of its occupation of the IBP building. Among these were the operation of a canteen.
Capitol officials also said they could not find documents that would support IBP?s occupancy of the compound.
Edgar Gica, president of the Cebu Lawyers Unity and Brotherhood Inc., said the governor was ?exerting pressure? on the IBP by suggesting that she has a right to drive the lawyers from the Capitol compound.
?For all legal intends and purposes, the IBP has right over the 200-square-meter lot where its IBP building stands as a usufructuary,? Gica said in a press release.
He said the IBP?s stay in the compound an in the building is covered by ?Provincial Board resolution no. 565-94 series of 1994 in correlation with a memorandum of agreement dated May 14, 1994.?
?Under the law... the IBP... has the right to enjoy the thing in usufruct, lease it to another, or even alienate his right of usufruct even by a gratuitous title,? said Gica.
