QC gov’t gets settlement from bank

Mayor Herbert Bautista

The Quezon City government has received P172.8 million from the Land Bank of the Philippines as settlement for the three-decade-old civil case that stemmed from a loan granted by the bank to Wilmag Iron Mines Inc. (Ramawil) using the city’s trust fund.

The check was handed by Landbank vice president Rosemarie Osoteo and assistant vice president Ma. Belma Turla to Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista on Wednesday, the city government said in a statement.

The payment was part of the compromise agreement signed in May last year by Bautista and Landbank president Gilda Pico, which also enabled the city to assign to the bank the disposal and sale of the Ramawil property near Payatas.

The Ramawil property was levied by the bank to satisfy the judgment of the Pasig Regional Trial Court in 1981, which ruled in favor of the city government to recover the money it had invested in Landbank.

More than 2,000 families are presently occupying the seven-hectare property, according to the city’s Housing and Community Development and Resettlement Department.

The compromise agreement requiring Landbank to return the P30 million investment plus P142.8 million in interest was approved by Judge Aurora Hernandez-Calledo of the Pasig Regional Trial Court.