CEBU Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia has scrapped an old agreement with residents of a province-owned lot in Minglanilla town in southern Cebu after they failed to pay “just compensation” to the Capitol for the past 12 years.

This was announced by Garcia on Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023 during her meeting with officials of the 1.1-hectare Sugbo-GK Village in Barangay Tunghaan.

In 2010, the Capitol agreed to sell the lots developed by Gawad Kalinga (GK) as relocation site for the informal settlers at P1,250 per square meter through a government financing institution.

When Garcia learned that all the 104 housing units at the site were already occupied but that their occupants had not met their obligations, she decided to void the previous agreement and reappraise the lots based on their current market value.

But the governor said she will help the residents by asking the Home Development Mutual Fund, more popularly known as the Pag-Ibig Fund, to grant them housing loans for them to be able to pay.

The Sugbo-GK Village is the second homeowners association that failed to pay “just compensation” to the Capitol after the Old Philippine Railway Residents Association Inc. (Oprra) in Barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City that has more than 400 members.

Garcia wants the Oprra homeowners to pay for the lot at P11,000 per square meter based on its assessed value in 2019. But the officials of Oprra Inc. turned to the court to order the Cebu Provincial Government to honor the compromise agreement in 1993, approved by the court in 1997, for the Province to sell the lots to Oprra homeowners for only P10 per square meter. (PAC / TPT)