Tuesday, October 23, 2007 Owner wants gov’t to pay P150M for occupying Arlegui mansion
THE original owner of the so-called Arlegui mansion inside Malacañang on Monday asked for P150 million in just compensation from the government owing to its illegal occupancy of the property during martial law up to the present.
Tarcila Lapera-Mendoza, through lawyer Rodolfo Orticio, filed a motion for reconsideration of the Supreme Court’s (SC) October 4, 2007 decision that awarded her ownership of the 4,924.60 square-meter parcel of land and ordered government to pay her around P8 million in back rent from July 1975 and monthly rent of P20,000 until it vacates the property.
In her motion, the 93-year-old Mendoza said the P8-million compensation granted by the high court is insufficient to pay for the necessary repairs to put back the property to its original condition at the time it was forcibly taken from her family.
Her lawyer said the government should pay for the fixtures, furniture, works of art and heirloom pieces that were left behind by private respondent, but since it is impractical for the government to return the property to the Mendoza family, "it is more equitable and solomonic for the government to pay for its present fair market value at P150 million."
The amount, which represents the fair market value of the property as well as lost income opportunities, was reached following the report of Asian Appraisal Company Inc., which determined the estimated value of the property as of March 15, 2007.
The family said to validate the appraisal of the property, the Republic even asked the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) to conduct an investigation.
On March 26, 2007, the LBP completed its investigation and declared in its report that the prevailing market value for the land alone is P113,266,000. Unfortunately, the bank did not provide an appraisal value for the structure and, because of lack of expertise, also failed to provide for a value for the lost opportunities of the Laperal-Mendoza family.
In the alternative, Mendoza said she should be paid P307 million in just compensation for the 33 years that government used the property, inclusive of interests at the legal rate of 12-percent per annum from 1975.
Mendoza, in a statement, said "she will just become melancholic, if not heartbroken and severely depressed, as she will just be looking for her family’s heirlooms, antique furniture and priceless paintings and not find them where she remembers them to be before she and her family lost their property."
"To add insult to injury, the manicured lawn where her children, nephews and nieces used to frolic has been left abandoned and the swimming pool were they leisurely basked under the sun is now nothing more than a breeding place for mosquitoes and wild water lilies. Simply stated, there is nothing for her to come back to," the statement further read.
In the assailed decision of the SC penned by retired Associate Justice Cancio Garcia, the SC ordered Malacañang to vacate the Arlegui property located at 1440 Arlegui St., San Miguel, Manila, which over three decades ago was seized by government during the martial law regime.
The Arlegui property now forms part of the Malacañang Palace complex housing several government agencies, including the Presidential Action Center and served as the Presidential Guest House during the terms of former President Ferdinand Marcos and even became the official residence of former Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos.
Court records showed that Mendoza's family has been in possession of the Arlegui property until the first week of July 1975 when a group of armed men representing themselves to be members of the Presidential Security Group of Marcos forcibly entered her residence and ordered to turn over to them the title to the property and compelled her and the members of her household to vacate the same.
Out of fear for their lives, Tarcila said she handed her owner's duplicate certificate copy of TCT No. 118527 and left the property. Mendoza later found that TCT No, 118527 had already been cancelled by virtue of a Deed of Sale in favor of the Republic allegedly executed by her and her deceased husband on July 15, 1975. (ECV/Sunnex)
