CA suspends order to award QC property to Wilfredo Torres

Wilfredo Torres INQUIRER file photo

The Court of Appeals has suspended indefinitely the implementation of a lower court’s order awarding ownership of a prime 23.7-hectare property in Culiat, Quezon City, to claimant Wilfredo Torres.

In granting a writ of preliminary injunction, the appellate court staved off the possible eviction of over 3,000 residents of K-ville Subdivision and seven other middle-class villages from their homes.

The court said it had “painstakingly gone over the records of the case to determine” if the K-ville residents were entitled to the relief in challenging the legality of the writ of possession which a Quezon City regional trial court granted to Torres on May 26, 2011.

“There is no doubt petitioners have a clear and unmistakable right to be protected by the writ of preliminary injunction sought,” the court said in a seven-page ruling.

“There is likewise no uncertainty as to the urgent necessity of an injunctive writ to enjoin the implementation of the assailed decisions and orders,” it added.

If implemented pending a ruling on the issue of the prime lots’ ownership, the court said the petitioners “will undoubtedly suffer grave irreparable injury.”

It took note of the petitioners’ argument that they had in their possession the titles to the lots their homes were  built on.

Associate Justices Jane Aurora Lantion and Elihu Ybañez concurred in the resolution authored by Associate Justice Rodil Zalameda.

Claim of ownership

The appellate court ordered the K-ville residents to post a P1-million bond in Torres’ favor for any damage he may incur should the court decide against the petitioners.

It also directed Torres to submit within 10 days his comment on the motion for leave of court to file a petition for intervention filed by 682 Community Association Inc.

The appellate court granted the injunctive writ after the 60-day temporary restraining order it issued on Sept. 29, 2011, lapsed. The TRO barred Quezon City Judge Tita Marilyn Payoyo-Villordon from implementing the orders she had separately issued on Nov. 16, 2010, and May 26, 2011.

The twin orders recognized Torres’ claim of ownership over the contested 23.7-ha property.

In September last year, heavily armed Quezon City policemen and private security guards hired by Torres tried to forcibly take over a private school, a construction site of Wilcon Builders Supply and six subdivisions that Torres claimed stood on the property his parents owned.

Also threatened with eviction were the residents of Sanville 1, 2, 3 and 4 subdivisions, K-Square and Metro Heights subdivisions, K-Ville Townhomes, Arfel Homes and Sadel Court.

Villordon’s orders would also affect the popular wedding venue Fernwood Gardens, including St. Francis Chapel and a portion of the Claret seminary.

Violence nearly erupted when Torres and armed men showed up as angry residents prevented the group from seizing control of the area.

‘Squatting syndicate’

This prompted the homeowners to seek relief from the appellate court, as they assailed Villordon for awarding ownership of the property to Torres who had been described by authorities as the leader of a “professional squatting syndicate.”

The ownership dispute began on Oct. 31, 1990, when Torres filed a civil suit against the couple Manuel and Rosalina Aliño, the supposed registered owners of the property.

In his complaint, Torres said his late mother, Dominga Roxas Sumulong, was the original owner of the land before she agreed to sell it to the Aliños on March 4, 1967, for P4.3 million.

The property supposedly encompassed some 43.1 ha on Visayas Avenue.

Torres said he decided to sue the Aliños after he found out the couple was able to register the property in their names despite their failure to pay his mother in full.

Prescription period expired

After six years, then Judge Emilio Leachon said the Aliños were in default and granted Torres’ petition to forfeit the supposed sale of the property.

But lawyer Walter Young, a resident of K-ville and counsel of the petitioners, said Torres had lost his chance to enforce the order as the 10-year prescriptive period for securing a writ of possession expired in 2007 since Leachon’s 1996 ruling became final and executory on Sept. 18, 1997.

To their surprise, Villordon directed the Quezon City assessor’s office, “under pain of contempt” on May 26, to immediately issue a transfer of tax declaration for a new transfer certificate of title in Torres’ name.