No police station in school lot

A TALISAY City official has assured the land on which the Lawaan Elementary School (LES) and National High School stand will be used only for school purposes.

Councilor Dennis Basillote dismissed fears the Talisay City Government will use part of the school lot in Barangay Lawaan I for a police building and a satellite office of the fire department.

Click here for Election 2010 updates

"It's not true that there will be a substation for the fire and police (departments)," he told Sun.Star Cebu last Wednesday.

In March, LES teachers opposed the proposal, saying the school lacked classrooms for its growing student population.

Citing an April 20, 2010 legal opinion from City Legal Officer Owen Algoso, Basillote said, "With regard to the problem of Lawaan Elementary School, the area is not really a problem because the area was reserved for school site purposes under Presidential Proclamation No. 443 dated Aug. 30, 1939 and was patented last July 24, 1940 in favor of the Municipal Government of Talisay, Cebu under Patent No. 45456."

In April, the LES teachers also expressed dismay at the council's disapproval of a measure that would have had the City Government donating the lot where the school stands to the school's Parents-Teachers Association (PTA).

They had asked for the formal donation of the land the school had long been occupying, so the PTA and LES teachers could start building new school facilities, including a proposed three-story building to house 30 to 40 additional classrooms.

The legal opinion, sought in line with Basillote's proposed resolution to authorize the city mayor to donate the lots to the PTA, said the 16,814-square-meter area, originally composed of two lots-Lot 3212-A and 3212-B, had been acquired by the then Municipality of Talisay "specifically for school site purposes only."

This means Talisay "has no other recourse but to devote those lots as school sites.

Donating the lots to another entity that will also use them for a school site would just be a "superfluity," it said.

Additional site

Lot 3212-A, comprising 8,969 square meters, is the subject of the presidential proclamation, while Lot 3212-B, comprising 7,845 square meters, was acquired in 1962 as an "additional school site" for LES, the opinion said.

In May 2001, however, the sales contract pertaining to Lot 3212-B was amended to exclude 5,992 square meters, later designated as Lot 3212-C, allegedly because Lot 3212-C was the subject of an application to purchase friar lands by the late Avelina Sigue.

Sigue's heirs have sued Talisay City and the Department of Education to recover possession of the lot. The case is pending before the Regional Trial Court-Branch 18.

Aside from the LES and the National High School, the Barangay Hall of Lawaan 1 is located on the 16,814-square-meter property.

The opinion does not specify which of the three lots the barangay hall occupies.

Basillote said Mayor Socrates Fernandez plans to build two classrooms this year in LES, hopefully to be integrated into the plan of the three- or four-story school building proposed by the PTA. He did not say whether the pending litigation will affect these plans.