CONSTRUCTION on the New Minglanilla Government Center in Barangay Poblacion has resumed following a yearlong suspension caused by a legal battle over land ownership.
The P399.9 million flagship project, intended to address overcrowding at the current municipal hall, stalled in 2023 due to an expropriation dispute involving the site. While the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged the delay and the lack of physical progress in its 2024 report, a recent court ruling granting the Municipality possession of the land allowed work to restart in June 2025.
Why did a decade-old land dispute halt a flagship infrastructure project, and how does the local government plan to recover lost time?
Legal bottleneck
The primary cause of the delay was a 13-year-old expropriation case that resurfaced unexpectedly. Although the Minglanilla Municipal Government initially acquired the lot in Barangay Poblacion and secured a writ of possession in 2012, the legal status of the land was challenged during the previous administration. A lawyer from the Provincial Legal Office filed a motion to exclude the specific area intended for the government center from the writ.
This legal challenge forced the Municipality to refile expropriation proceedings at the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 76 in the City of Naga. Consequently, despite an incumbent administration greenlighting the project in 2022, the Municipal Planning Board and municipal engineers recommended suspending work on May 19, 2023, until the court resolved the pending motion for reconsideration.
Audit warnings
Before the legal resolution, the COA raised concerns about the project’s stagnation in its 2024 audit report. State auditors noted that the project, procured through a design-and-build scheme, was intended for completion within 1,080 calendar days starting Jan. 24, 2023. By early 2025, based on the elapsed contract time, the contractor should have completed approximately 65 percent of the work. However, an inspection on Feb. 5 revealed that only construction footings and pre-cast beams had been installed.
Financial records indicated the Municipal Government released a mobilization fee of P59.99 million to the contractor on May 5, 2023. However, no further progress payments were made by the end of 2024 because the suspension halted the billing cycle.
The Municipality had paid the mobilization fee upon the project’s commencement as stipulated in the contract, but the work progress billing for the 115 days accomplished before the suspension remained unpaid. The audit body warned that the continued delay risked violating government efficiency mandates under Presidential Decree 1445.
Project resumption
The legal impasse broke earlier this year when the presiding judge of RTC Branch 76 issued a new writ of possession on March 20, 2025. Court personnel and the Municipal Government implemented this writ on May 8, clearing the way for construction to continue.
Work officially resumed last June, after Mayor Rajiv Enad confirmed that the suspension order was lifted, allowing the contract timeline to run again.
Enad expressed relief at the progress, noting that the sheriff’s implementation of the writ allowed them to log seven months of construction progress from the resumption date.
“It was last June 23, 2025 that we ordered the resumption of work on the construction of the New Minglanilla Government Center. I am elated that the court sheriff implemented the writ of possession last May, so now we have made seven months of construction progress from the date of resumption,” Enad said.
Moving forward
The resumption of the four-story government center project is expected to eventually ease the transaction process for residents of Minglanilla, who currently face overcrowding at the existing municipal hall.
Enad said the local government is closely monitoring the work to ensure they can catch up on the timeline. Municipal officials have committed to preparing a detailed catch-up plan to address the lost time and will coordinate strictly with the contractor to meet the remaining requirements. With the legal hurdles cleared, the focus now shifts to the contractor’s ability to deliver the structure without further delays. / EHP