SC evicts government officials holding office in Arlegui
In addition, the High Court also ordered the government to pay the property’s owner, Tarcila Laperal Mendoza, around P8 million in rental fees from 1975 up to the present.
The officers and staff of Presidential Action Center (PAC) and other agencies under the Office of the President are now occupying the said property.
The property served as the Presidential Guest House during the terms of Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos.
In an 18-page decision penned by Associate Justice Cancio Garcia, the SC’s First Division affirmed the August 27, 2003 ruling of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Manila, Branch 37 insofar as it declares Mendoza as the real owner of the subject property covered by Transfer Certificate Title (TCT) No. 118527.
Mendoza argued that she had been in possession of the property until the first week of July 1975 when a group of armed men, representing themselves as members of the Presidential Security Group of then President Marcos, forcibly entered her residence and ordered her to turn over the title to the said property and compelled her and the members of her household to vacate the same.
Out of fear for their lives, Mendoza said, she handed her owner’s duplicate certificate copy of TCT No. 118527 and left the property.
Mendoza later found that TCT No. 118527 had already been cancelled by virtue of a deed of sale in favor of the Republic allegedly executed by her and her deceased husband on July 15, 1975.
“The evidence adduced indeed adequately supports a conclusion that the Office of the President, during the administration of then President Marcos, wrested possession of the property in question and somehow secured a certificate of title over it without a conveying deed having been executed legally to justify the cancellation of the old title in the name of private respondent and the issuance of a new one in the name of petitioner Republic,” the SC said.
Meanwhile, the SC nullified the lower court’s order for the government to pay Mendoza more than P2 billion, including interests, representing the rental use of the Arlegui property.
Instead, it ordered the Office of the President to pay Mendoza the amount of P20,000 a month beginning July 1975 until it vacates the property and the possession is given back to her.
The SC also directed the OPS to pay additional interest of six percent per annum on the total amount due upon finality of the decision until it is fully paid. The government is further ordered to pay Mendoza attorney’s fees equivalent to 15 percent of the amount due her.
The Court described as “unconscionable” and “ridiculous” the order of Manila RTC Judge Vicente Hildago for the government to pay Mendoza the amount of P1.48 billion representing the rental for the subject property on top of the P143 million representing the acquisition cost of the disputed property, exclusive of interest.
It noted that the property is relatively small in terms of actual area and had an assessed value of only P2.39 million. It also stressed that the Arlegui property had minimal rental value during the long martial law years, given the very restrictive entry and exit conditions prevailing at the vicinity at that time and even after.
“Albeit the Arlegui property remains in the names of the petitioner Republic, it is actually the Office of the President which has beneficial possession of and use over it since the 1975 takeover. Accordingly, and in accord with the elementary sense of justice, it behooves that office to make the appropriate budgetary arrangements towards paying private respondent what is due her under the premises. This to us is the right thing to do,” the Court said.
“Private respondent is in the twilight of her life, being now over 90 years of age. Any delay in the implementation of this disposition would be a bitter cut,” the SC added.
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