Members of the Cebu City Council are looking closer into money claims of property owners who recently won their court cases against the city government.
Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young said an executive session is being called with the city treasurer, legal officer and planning officers so law makers can be briefed on the 1963 expropriation of the Rallos lot.
“We want to know who was responsible. We want to know so this would be prevented the next time,” Young said.
Since most of the council ors were newly elected in 2010, they need a case background.
“We have heard about the case but we don’t know the details or where the lot is located,” he said.
He also sought clarification on why the city government was still asked to pay P240 million for the Rallos lot even after the court ordered the garnishment of P34 million from the city’s bank account for the lot payment.
Young said that if he had his way, City Hall would pay off the heirs of the late Vicente Rallos, whose lot in barangay Sambag 1 was expropriated by the city government in 1963 to open a road.
Since an entry of judgment was already made by by the Supreme Court (SC), he said the city government was compelled to pay for the property.
He said the city also stands to pay for the Roque Ting lot. The city lost its case in the Regional Trial Court and the Court of Appeals. A motion for reconsideration is pending with the SC.
He said the city could have paid only P9 million had Mayor Michael Rama agreed to settle out of court with lot owner Roque Ting in a separate case. Now the city stands to pay Ting P39 million plus 6 percent interest per annum computed from 2007 when the city lost at the RTC.
Mayor Rama said yesterday that City Treasurer Ofelia Oliva was looking into the history of the Rallos lot.
He said it appears that the property has unpaid tax obligations. He said he didn’t know the location of the Rallos lot.
“You cannot pay for something that you have not seen,” he said.