THE Cebu Provincial Government has slammed the refusal of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to pay just compensation for its encroachment on Capitol-owned lots on Osmeña Boulevard, Cebu City.
Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia made her sentiments known in a press conference on Friday, July 21, 2023, after receiving a reply letter from the DPWH Central Office last Monday, July 17.
In the letter, Undersecretary for Legal Service Anne Sharlyne Lapuz said the DPWH will not pay the Capitol for the lot encroachment, as the lots claimed by the Province were only being “held in trust for the state for the benefit of its inhabitants.”
Cebu Province made a verbal demand to DPWH Central Visayas for compensation last May over the occupied property now being used as a national road. The regional office referred this to its Central Office.
Garcia said: “In the case of Osmeña Blvd., the titles I referred to in fact have the annotation for a road lot which would only corresponds to 20 meters in width. Upon inspection by our engineers, it was proven that the DPWH had extended beyond the 20-meter width limit. Two meters on each side, therefore encroaching on a total of four meters width and all the way up to Fuente Osmeña.”
According to Capitol legal consultant Rory Jon Sepulveda, the DPWH Central Office questioned the ownership of Cebu Province of the disputed lot, asking the local government unit (LGU) to prove that it acquired the property through its private capacity.
“This undersecretary made the presumption that we did not acquire this property in our private capacity and we are just a mere trustee of the National Government,” Sepulveda said.
DPWH cited the Supreme Court (SC) ruling of the case of Salas vs. Jarencio (City of Manila) and Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Bataan vs. Garcia (Province of Bataan), but Sepulveda argued that these rulings were inapplicable to the present issue.
“We found out that these cases involved a sovereign act, an act of Congress, declaring certain properties of local government units to be used for a national government purpose. So applying the principle of stare decisis or the rule of precedents would apply to our case then? So the question arose, is there an act of Congress that particular portion of property made into a road? None,” he added.
Sepulveda clarified that this was not a case where the properties of the national government were handed down to the care of the LGU as trustee. Rather, Cebu Province had acquired the lots back in the 1930s in its own private corporate capacity.
The first provincial seat of Cebu was on M.J. Cuenco Avenue across the now Plaza Independencia until it was transferred in 1937 to its current location along Escario Street.
He said before the transfer of the seat, the lot was formerly known as Hacienda Osmeña until it was developed into Cebu Heights Subdivision, owned by Cebu Heights Company Inc. The Provincial Government at that time acquired a large portion of the lot from the private firm to use it as an access road for the entry and exit of the new Capitol Building.
This road refers to the now national road from Fuente Osmeña Circle to the Capitol Building.
“DPWH has no more basis to hold off our just and legal claim of just compensation. And the just compensation will be the value of the property at the time now. If they will not agree to negotiate with us, the value would then be that we will be compelled to go to expropriation,” Sepulveda added.
Last April, the DPWH Cebu City District Office said the DPWH encroached on 42,615 square meters of Capitol property on Osmeña Boulevard, of which 24,242 square meters was on the right side of the road and the rest on the left side.
Capitol has also called out private firms for encroaching on Capitol lots along the same street, charging them rent and threatening those who don’t pay with ejectment. (EHP, WITH CTL)