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Monday, August 08, 2005
Napocor ordered: Pay fair price for private land
CEBU CITY -- The Supreme Court (SC) is directing National Power Corp. (Napocor) to pay the owners of a lot they had expropriated in 1996 for its Leyte-Cebu Interconnection Project.
In a 26-page decision, the SC Third Division ruled that Napocor should pay the court's approved fair market value of the lot, and not just take refuge in its charter, which the power company claimed reduced their obligation to owners of expropriated lots.
Napocor earlier argued that they should not be forced to pay the court's mandated fair market value of the lot, worth P516.66 per square meter, because they would only be using the lot owned by Petrona O. Dilao and her siblings as right-of-way easement.
The power company said Republic Act 6395, or the Act Revising the Charter of Napocor, states that the company should not pay more than 10 percent of the fair market value of the lot for the properties it would use as road-right-of-way easement.
Dilao's 7,281-square-meter lot had been affected by Napocor's project to source power from Leyte last March 1996.
Limit
The Regional Trial Court and Court of Appeals earlier ordered Napocor to pay the Dilaos P3,761,801.40 for the property and an additional P250,000 for the agricultural products affected by the development.
But Napocor questioned the rulings. It cited their charter, which limits the amount they have to pay for parcels of land to be used for the road-right-of-way easement.
They added that the Dilaos could still use the traversed land, although subject only to its easement.
Napocor also said the lots expropriated have no other operational use, except for its transmission lines.
But the SC, in a decision penned by Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, ruled that Napocor should pay the fair market value of the lot, regardless of what they are going to do with the property.
Damage
Quoting the Napocor vs. Gutierrez case, the SC said the right-of-way easement, resulting in a restriction or limitation on property rights over the land traversed by transmission lines, is still considered expropriation.
"It cannot be gainsaid that (Napocor's) complaint merely involves a simple case of mere passage of transmission lines over Dilao et al.'s property. Aside from the actual damage done to the property traversed by the transmission lines, the agricultural and economic activity normally undertaken on the entire property is unquestionably restricted and perpetually hampered as the environment is made dangerous to the occupant's life and limb," the SC said in its ruling.
The SC said the court's approved fair market value was "just and reasonable compensation" for the expropriated lot of Dilao and her siblings. (GN/Sun.Star Cebu)
(August 8, 2005 issue)
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