The Cebu City Council wants to settle the issue of payments for the Rallos lots in the next 15 days.
Cebu City Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young said that should be enough time for the executive department to negotiate with the heirs of the late Vicente Rallos before council intervenes.
Council members yesterday met with outgoing City Treasurer Ofelia Oliva, City Legal Officer Joseph Bernaldez and Planning Officer Alipio Bacalso in an executive session briefing on the lot case.
“We wanted to give the executive a free hand to negotiate. We can’t tell them what to do but if they need our help, lawyers at the City Council can help,” Young said.
Young said that while the court ruled to compel the city to pay for the Rallos lot, the council wants to question the computation of the city’s dues.
“How to compute the amount is still a debatable matter. We already paid (for the property) two times and I think the court was not aware of that,” said Young.
Rallos heirs are asking the city government P224 million in payment for their property.
Bacalso presented to the council a map showing the location of the Rallos lot, which the city used for a road in 1963.
The property near Aznar Coliseum is now known as M.H. Aznar and 7th Streets. The road lot measures 511 meters.
Lawyer Jerome Castillo of the city legal office said the city exhausted all legal remedies in the Rallos case.
Castillo, handling lawyer for the lot case, told the council that the Regional Trial Court set the lot price at P34. 9 million with a 12 percent interest per annum computed to start 40 days from the issuance of the decision and until full payment is made.
The computation was based on the P7,500 per square meterlot price (not P4,500, which Oliva said earlier) multiplied by the total lot area of 4,654 square meters.
However, the Ralloses appealed that the per-square-meter value of the property be raised to P12,500 per square meter.
The court granted a price adjustment of P2,000 bringing the per-square-meter cost of the property to P9,500.
With the price adjustment, the total lot cost was raised to P44.2 million.
RTC Judge Geraldine Faith Ycong further ruled that the P34.9 million garnished from the city’s bank accounts be deducted from the total lot cost of P44.2 million.