Apas settlers ask Capitol aid

CEBU Gov. Hilario Davide III is scheduled to meet with Apas barangay officials today to discuss the fate of 150 families who occupy a property reportedly owned by the province but is being claimed by a private lot owner.

Apas barangay chairman Ramil Ayuman said the Cebu provincial government can contest the writ of demolition requested by Aletha Suico-Magat since the two lots she claimed ownership over were reportedly owned by the province.

Judge Pamela Baring of Municipal Trial Courts in Cities (MTCC) Branch 6 in Cebu City gave the families five days starting Jan. 3 to file their comment or opposition to the motion filed by Magat.

As of present, only 30 families issued their opposition, Ayuman said.

Magat is claiming ownership of two adjacent lots measuring to 17,614 square meters through a ruling by the Supreme Court.

But records from the province’s real estate department show that the two lots are province-owned.

Paul Entera, supervising administrative officer of the province’s real estate section said the Capitol retains its ownership of the lots it purchased from the national government through Executive Order No. 20.

The lots were then lent to the Bureau of Air Transportation for the previous Lahug Airport which formerly existed in the present location of IT Park, he said.  Correspondent Peter L. Romanillos