Ex-police official sues Cebu province over Ciudad lot

A FORMER  police official filed a civil suit against  Cebu province after being told to vacate a  lot in barangay Lahug, Cebu City, that would be made part of the Ciudad project.

Rico Paculto, who used to be the chief of the Regional Security Unit in Central Visayas, sought the intervention of the Regional Trial Court to stop  the province from claiming a lot he has occupied since 1976.

Paculto said he has the right to acquire a portion of lot 3-A-1-B lot. The province, in a letter dated Feb. 4, 2005, demanded that Paculto  vacate the land.

Palcuto said he was  the “actual occupant and possessor” of the  1,800-square-meter lot where he built his house  and a business establishment called “Ayer’s Lechon.”

Paculto asked the court to order the DENR to process the sale of the property to him.

He was also asking the defendants to pay him  P100,000 as attorney’s fees and litigation expenses.

Also  named respondents in Paculto’s complaint were Fifth Avenue Property Development Corp. and Regional Director Maximo Dichoso of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

“The plaintiff (Paculto) will suffer great or irreparable injury if the concerned defendants will proceed to oust him and his family,” said Paculto’s lawyer Rolando Navarro.

Paculto asked the court to stop  the province and Fifth Avenue from evicting them.

He said Fifth Avenue was  tasked by the province to conduct a survey in the area and oust his  family from the lot.

He said he began paying for the lot in 1976 when he was still a police official.

In 1984, Paculto said the lot’s former occupant, Cornelio Mercado, assigned to him a portion of the house as  shown in a  Confirmation of Assignment of Rights, Agreement and Authority.

The lot where Paculto’s property is situated is covered by the Friar Lands Act.

DENR was impleaded in the complaint to process the sale of the property which is subject to the “Friar Lands Act.” /Ador Vincent S. Mayol, Reporter