Couple wants P4.8M from City
Sunday, September 5, 2010
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A COUPLE from one of the mountain barangays in Cebu City is demanding P4.8 million from the City Government for the use of their land as a public cemetery for 28 years.
Ramon Ceniza, lawyer of spouses Demetrio and Fructuosa Labrador from Barangay Babag, said the City has been using the lots “to the great prejudice of my clients who have been unable, up to the present, to resume their farming activities, which had been their only source of livelihood.”
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Ceniza said it is “a long-standing claim” of his clients for the City Government to pay the amount for the 4,950 square meters it has been using.
The amount represents the total annual rentals for 28 years and 3 months as of July 10 this year, counting from 1982.
In his letter to Mayor Michael Rama, Ceniza said that in 1982, the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) expropriated several parcels of land in the upland villages of the city, including those of his clients, for a tourism, sports and entertainment complex.
After the issuance of a writ of possession and demolition by the court, in favor of PTA, the lot became the site of a public cemetery.
It remains a cemetery to this day.
But on June 10, 1988, Ceniza said, the expropriation case was dismissed.
“It should be evident even to a non-lawyer that when the expropriation case was dismissed, the possession of the lot of my clients by PTA and the City of Cebu rendered illegal the continued use of the lot,” said Ceniza.
He said the Labradors used to plant flowers, bananas, corn and other crops from the land, now a “sepulcher full of dead men’s bones.”
“All my clients want is simple justice,” said Ceniza.
“What confronts the City’s present leadership, more than a legal issue, is the moral and ethical issue, especially as the aggrieved party is a poor couple who are not only sickly but also of far advanced ages,” he said.
Ceniza’s letter has been endorsed to City Council and referred to the City Attorney’s Office for comments and observations. (PDF)
