City Council next to face Rallos suit

IT’S now the Cebu City Council that’s being targeted for court action by the Rallos heirs.

Roy Rallos, one of the claimants, said they sent letters to the councilors to demand the payment of the P133 million the city owed them.

“It seems that they (city council) are not doing something (to release the amount to us),” Roy told Cebu Daily News over the phone.

He said the city’s debt to their family increases by P1 million every month that the city government fails to pay.

“If the city council will continue to be manipulated by the mayor in not releasing what is due the family, we will sue them,” Roy said.

One of the Ralloses earlier filed charges of indirect contempt against Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama for asking the Philippine Veterans Bank (PVB) to put on hold the city’s funds despite a notice of garnishment issued to them by the court.

Roy said Rama wants to delay the release of the amount to the family.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the heirs of the Rev. Fr. Vicente Rallos and ordered the city to pay them for a lot that was purportedly expropriated by the city for a road.

In an order dated Sept. 23, 2011, Regional Trial Court Judge James Stewart Ramon Himalaloan told the court sheriff to issue a writ of execution against the city government.

The city filed a motion to quash the writ of execution and notice of garnishment issued by the sheriff to four banks and three SM companies doing business with Cebu City.

The court denied the city’s request.

In refusing to pay the Ralloses, the city government secured an old document which showed that the family agreed among themselves to donate a part of their property to the Cebu City government for road purposes.

The sheriff, however, decided to levy real properties of the city to satisfy its debt to the Ralloses.

A notice of levy was issued to the Register of Deeds covering two lots at the South Reclamation Project (SRP) which contains an area of 97,621 square meters each.

The sheriff plans to sell at public auction real properties of the city on Dec. 13, 2011 at the Sheriff’s office inside the Palace of Justice as payment to the family. Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol