City Hall lawyer: No basis to pay couple for land

THE Cebu City Government will not pay the P4.8 million demanded by a couple from Barangay Babag for the use of their land as a public cemetery, an official said yesterday.

Atty. Lyndon Basan from the City Attorney’s Office said City Hall has no basis to pay P4,894,312.50 for the 4,950 square meters owned by spouses Demetrio and Fructousa Labrador, which has been used as a public cemetery for 28 years.

Updates on President Benigno Aquino III's presidency

“The claim against the City has been dismissed by the court. There is no basis to pay either judicially or extra-judicially,” said Basan.

There is no evidence the City Government took the property, he also said.

Basan said the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) handed over the property by virtue of a writ of possession in an expropriation case in the 1980s.

“The decision of the court correctly makes PTA solely liable for the claim of Labrador, because PTA was the sole agency who took the property,” said Basan in a text message to Sun.Star Cebu.

In 1982, PTA expropriated lands in the upland villages of the city for a tourism, sports and entertainment complex. The Labradors’ property was among those expropriated.

Lawyer Ramon Ceniza, representing the Labradors, said in a letter to Mayor Michael Rama that the court “oddly dismissed” the case against the City, without evidence being introduced to support a motion to dismiss.

According to Ceniza, the City said in its defense that the public cemetery did not exist or is located in another locality.

“How strange indeed,” he said.

“(City Hall’s) lawyers did their best to win the case for the City of Cebu. However, with all due respect to them, they went overboard by denying that the public cemetery existed or is located in Danao City, Talisay City, Mandaue City or Lapu-Lapu City, without presenting evidence in support of their allegation,” Ceniza said.

He added that the City asserted legal defenses like the statute of frauds “despite the basic tenet in law that the statute of frauds does not apply to an act that has been performed, in this case, the conversion and utilization by the City” of the lot owned by Labrador into a public cemetery.

Ceniza said the cemetery can be easily confirmed through an inspection, after a 30-minute drive to Mawmawan Valley, close to Busay Heights.

Ceniza said his clients will be seeking a reversal of the dismissal order of the case against the City.

“All my clients want is simple justice,” he said.

The City Attorney’s Office, for its part, will make its formal reply this week to the issues raised by the Labradors.