Labella: Lot payment delay could cause city more woes

CEBU - Delay in the payment of the Palicte lot could cause the Cebu City government more problems in the future.

This was the opinion of Councilor Edgardo Labella, chairman of the City Council committee on laws, on the final demand for the payment by the heirs of Matilde Palicte that was issued by the Regional Trial Court.

He explained that if the city continues to delay the payment of the lot that was used for the city’s urban poor project, the Palicte family might be forced to recover the property that may create more problems for the city.

Labella cited to his fellow legislators the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case Republic of the Philippines vs. Vicente Lim that involves a parcel of lot situated near the old Lahug airport.

In that case, he explained that the government took possession of Lim’s property for the use of the military but it failed to pay the owner of the fair value within the mandated five-year period.

Labella said the Supreme Court ruled that “in cases where the government failed to pay the just compensation of the property within five years from the finality of the judgment in the expropriation proceedings, the owners concerned shall have the right to recover possession of their property.”

On the Palicte property, the court has already ordered the garnishment of city accounts to settle the payment for the heirs of Matilde Palicte, who used to be a government servant before she died.

Her more than half hectare lot in Guadalupe was expropriated by the city during the first term of Mayor Tomas Osmeña in 2001 for the use of the urban poor families.

The court had ordered the city to pay the Palictes P20.5 million representing the unpaid purchase price of the expropriated property, including interests and legal fees. — Rene U. Borromeo/WAB (THE FREEMAN)