Gwen calls off deal with firms encroaching on provincial lot

CEBU, Philippines — At least four establishment owners whose structures encroached on the property claimed by the Cebu provincial government have sent a letter of protest to the Capitol.

The letter that was prepared by the law firm representing the four structure owners comes with a plea to cancel and nullify the charged rent imposed by the Capitol citing several reasons.

“The Province’ conferred title as lessor and charging of rent evince summary taking of the building owner’s property without due process of law infringing the fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution (Section 1, Article III) which reads ‘No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the law’,” read the first reason stated in the letter dated April 25, 2023.

The owners said in the letter that “summary taking, intrusion, interfering with, disturbing and limiting the building owner’s right over their property are unconstitutional” and “there can be no forced lessor-lessens contractual relation, and worse, coerce the building owners to follow the onerous dictate of the Province”.

The three-page letter was posted by Sugbo News, the Capitol’s news arm, on its Facebook page on May 10, 2023.

The letter that was addressed to Governor Gwendolyn Garcia also showed the signatures of the structure owner/representatives like Adoracion Leaño of Suarez Brothers; Dr. Potenciano Larrazabal III of Cebu Doctors’ Hospital; Josefa Gorordo Revilles of Anita’s Bakeshop; and Belina Yap of Medical Imports and Mackim Prints.

According to Sugbo News, the structure owners failed to meet with the governor in a scheduled meeting and instead sent representatives who presented the letter to the governor.

The letter did not sit well with Garcia who immediately “called off” the deal she was proposing to the structure owners during their previous meeting where the Capitol initially offered the establishments “lenient paying terms” on their owed rental to the Province and asked them to submit a counter-proposal after Capitol consultant Yvonne Gomos showed the manner of computation of the lease rates.

The Capitol said the amount of the back rentals supposedly owed by these structure owners to the province is over P31 million from 2014 to 2023.

According to the Capitol Information Office, the province will deal with the encroachment issue with the four structure owners in a proper forum and the Capitol will send demand letters to those owners who signed the letter to ask them to pay the Capitol on the encroachment with interest.

The Capitol reiterated that it is the legal owner of portions of the lot along Osmeña Boulevard, Cebu City including sidewalks and roads where there are encroached structures of some establishments. (FREEMAN)