Barangay Apas residents file second motion

CEBU, Philippines – The association's legal team, the VTU & M Legal Team (Villagonzalo, Tatlonghari, Ubod and Maceren) also wants the court to quash the writ of demolition which they described as "prematurely and improvidently issued."

Likewise, they pray to the court to allow the plaintiff (residents) to file the necessary motion to enable them to present their evidence in the same case or in a separate proceeding whichever is applicable, in order to satisfy the demands of due process as prayed for by the plaintiff and now also the "oppositor."

VTU and M legal team cited that it was the intention of their client to set the motion for oral arguments in order for the court to be guided accordingly in disposing the motion considering that it is a pairing court and may have lack of knowledge on the facts and circumstances of the case.

The legal team said that after they were assured of a hearing, they were surprised that RTC Branch 9 acting presiding judge Judge Olegario Sarmiento Jr. issued an order last July 29 denying their first motion for reconsideration and to proceed with the demolition of the homeowners' homes.

"It is oppositor's contention that said order was again irregularly issued hence illegal. It further aggravates the deprivation of due process which oppositor has been suffering all along in this case," the second motion for reconsideration reads.

The legal team added that while the residents' counsels are grateful of the court's concern of possibly avoiding them embarrassment, they cannot help feeling disgusted of this court's presumptive stand.

"It's lawyers would be glad accepting humiliation and defeat fighting its client's valid and legal cause rather than be subjectively judged and their mouths judicially zipped off helplessly," it added.

 At least 168 families/residents of Sitio San Miguel, Barangay Apas are now being threatened by eviction after Sarmiento issued an order for the demolition of the residents' houses.

The lot that the residents are using is being claimed by one Mariano Godinez, after the National Government failed to pay for it. The case is filed against the Republic of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

Sarmiento issued the order on July 29 for the residents to leave the questioned Lot 937.

Earlier, Apas barangay captain Ramil Ayuman said the residents are builders in good faith because they had permission from the National Government when they built their houses there more than 50 years ago.

Lot 937 was supposedly an expropriated property but the government was able to give only a deposit, failing to pay for the lot in full. The owners then filed a case to recover it.

The lot was reportedly identified as a socialized housing site under Resolution 99-4771 of the Cebu City Council on June 30, 1999.

Lawyer Rameses Villagonzalo, one of the members of the legal team, said that their second motion for reconsideration is scheduled to be heard on August 20.

The legal team added that the homeowners' members are not trespassers nor squatters by virtue of its open, continuous, exclusive and notorious occupation of the property since the 1960s without any notice or threat of its possession until the filing of the "reivindicatoria suit" (a suit to recover ownership of real property) by Godinez against the Republic of the Philippines through the Philippine National Police. (THE FREEMAN)