THE Cebu City Council last week asked the Office of the Solicitor General to take all legal steps necessary for the recovery from Capitol of the lot where the Department of Agriculture (DA) used to be located on M. Velez St. in Barangay Guadalupe.
It also asked the DA to act as plaintiff-intervenor in the case Mayor Tomas Osmeña filed against the Provincial Government for judicial review and termination of the title the Capitol reportedly has in its hands.
City Councilor Edgardo Labella said the Province, in asserting its right over the property, evicted the DA from the lot it occupied for years.
He was prompted to make the request, which colleagues endorsed, out of concern for the city residents living inside what used to be the DA compound.
“The Cebu Provincial Government seems to have threatened with eviction the remaining residents, whom the City of Cebu has recognized as legitimate urban settlers of the compound,” read the resolution he authored.
The Capitol’s claim over the property particularly hinges on Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT) 6204.
Ownership
“It appears…there are serious alleged irregularities in the issuance of the said TCT, including but not limited to the absence of a clear showing of predecessors or previous titles under Lot 6033-B, and the absence of any indication of the mode of acquisition by the Province of Cebu of its supposed ownership of the lot in question,” the measure also read.
Osmeña last month sued Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia; Agriculture Sec. Arthur Yap; DA 7 Director Ricardo Oblena; Angel Enriquez, DA 7 technical director; Edwardo Alama, DA 7 administrative officer; lawyer Samuel Dinoy, DA 7 legal officer; and the Cebu City Register of Deeds for turning over the lot in Barangay Guadalupe to the Provincial
Government.
The City Government and the DA Cebu Breeding Residents Association Inc. were also named petitioners in the complaint.
They also asked the court to declare DA as the lawful owner of the contested property.
In encouraging the DA 7 to join the mayor, the city council mentioned that it is currently paying P1.6 million as monthly rent of the space it is occupying after being evicted by the Capitol.
“The DA, in view of the pecuniary and other damages it has sustained as a result of the eviction, is also a party-in-interest in any suit questioning the validity of the title of
the Province of Cebu to the lot in question,” it said.