Court tells Camarines Sur gov: Keep off land cases

A Regional Trial Court (RTC) in the Bicol region has directed the provincial government of Camarines Sur to suspend the possession of private lots for the P3.5-billion airport expansion project in Naga City.

In a five-page order, Presiding Judge Vivencio Gregorio Atutubo III, of Pili RTC Branch 32, said the local government, represented by Gov. Miguel Luis Villafuerte, was not the “real party-in-interest” in the expropriation case.

Atutubo said the Office of the Solicitor General had already filed a manifestation insisting that it was the proper state agency for the filing of expropriation cases involving the Naga City Airport Development Project of the Department of Transportation (DOTr).

Not involved

The judge said although lower courts were “precluded from issuing injunctions against national government projects, it nevertheless appears that the [provincial government] is not the real party-in-interest in this case.”

Villafuerte had said the DoTr, which had entered into a memorandum of agreement with the provincial government, had made available P400 million to pay for private lands covered by the airport project.

Atutubo had granted the provincial government’s petition for a writ of possession on July 4, 2017, after it deposited P31.6 million for the acquisition of the lands.