Thursday, June 05, 2008 Drop interest demand, we’ll pay balance: City Hall By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter
CEBU City officials are requesting the Palicte heirs to drop the P6 million in interest that they are demanding. In exchange, the City Government will immediately pay the P14 million balance for the lot.
The City Government is still negotiating with the heirs of Matilde S. Palicte but City Councilor Jose Daluz III said they will also prepare to file before the Court of Appeals (CA) a petition for certiorari. They will also seek a temporary restraining order should the Regional Trial Court (RTC) issue a garnishment order.
Daluz said the City is ready to settle the unpaid balance for the expropriated lot amounting to P14.1 million, which will be included in the second supplemental budget.
Appropriation
“We are negotiating with them to drop the P6 million in penalties and interests and we will pay them the balance right away. We can pay that. But if they don’t agree and a garnishment order is issued, then we can question that in court because this is garnishment of public funds and there is no appropriation for it,” Daluz told Sun.Star Cebu.
RTC Branch 9 Sheriff Antonio Bellones has sent the City Government the final demand for payment last March 24, notifying city officials that they only have until March 29 to settle their obligations amounting to P20.3 million.
The City has not made any payment so far.
Bellones also gave the City an option to either pay the Palicte heirs in cash or choose from any of the City-owned properties that it may prefer its debt to be levied on.
Not an option
But in his news conference yesterday, Mayor Tomas Osmeña said giving the Palictes a property as payment is not an option.
He said that he will leave it to the City Attorney’s Office to decide on the matter and finalize negotiations with the Palictes.
City Administrator Francisco Fernandez said they are now finalizing their negotiations with the heirs of Palicte. He said they are dealing with two groups of Palictes represented by two different lawyers.
Difficult
He said the negotiations have turned out to be difficult because they have to consult the other lawyer on what they have agreed on with the other lawyer, and vice versa.
“But we are working on it. We are finalizing everything and we’ve asked them to drop the interests, then we’ll pay the P14 million in full. Otherwise, we will have to deal
with a garnishment order and this will take time, so we opt to reach an amicable settlement,” Fernandez said.
“There’s still no appropriation for it so if there is a garnishment order, we can block that. It’s not easy to seize public funds,” he said.
The 5,295-square-meter Palicte property in Barangay Capitol Site was expropriated by the City Government in 2001 for its on-site development project for the urban poor families occupying the lot.
The total purchase price of the expropriated lot is P23,782,500, or P4,500 per square meter, as set by the court’s appraisal committee.
A partial payment of P725,881 was made in May 2002 and when the City failed to pay the balance in full, the court issued a garnishment order.
A total of P8,963,284 was seized from the City’s bank account in May 2003.
No other payment was made since 2003, so that the balance of P14,093,335 ballooned to P20,307,542.80 because of interest payments the Palicte heirs are collecting.
The court ruled in favor of the Palice heirs and in Aug. 29, 2007, its order for the City to pay became final and executory.
