Court delay stalls M. Velez project
M Velez
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Cebu City District Engineering Office has asked the Cebu City Regional Trial Court (RTC) to speed up the judicial approval of the agency’s contracts with settlers along M. Velez Street.
The contracts contains the compensation for the residents as appraised by the Cebu City Appraisal Committee.
“The land there is not titled. We can’t trace if it’s privately owned or owned by the state, or city or province. But the DPWH is willing to pay for them. We’re just waiting for the court’s move,” DPWH Cebu City District Engineer Fernando Cruz told Cebu Daily News.
The delay in the court’s approval of the contracts had stalled the completion of the road improvement near the Capitol building which started in July 2011. Three years since, the undertaking is only 65 percent complete.
“What’s delaying us is the court approval. We don’t have any more workable items as of the moment,” he said.
Retain 7 trees
He welcomed the suggestion to retain seven trees along the road, including what turned out to be the biggest Narra tree recorded by the Cebu City Parks and Playgrounds Commission.
The trees were supposed to be earth-balled, but this became the center of a controversy when the contractor removed a Balete tree from the site without permits from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
“We can have the trees there as a center island. But we have to make sure that the other side of the road is at least eight to ten meters wide. If lesser than that, it might be a little difficult,” Cruz explained.
He will send a team to inspect how wide the other lane can be. The existing lane of the M. Velez St. beside the Capitol building is eight meters wide.
The other side is occupied by settlers, both residential and commercial, and this is the subject of pending cases before the RTC for expropriation.
Thello Jay Cardente, road right-of-way (RROW) agent of DPWH city office, said they asked the Office of the Solicitor General to fast track the expropriation case.
“Thirteen cases for judicial approval of our contracts with the settlers were filed November last year. But because of the earthquake and typhoon, the cases have dragged until this moment,” Cardente told CDN.
Of the 13 cases, six were approved by the court and the money was forwarded to the DPWH Cebu City office. Seven cases which are handled by different judges are still pending approval, but the checks are already prepared.
“Once the court approves our contract, we can immediately give the payment to the settlers,” Cardente said.
Pretrial hearings for the remaining cases are spread from June 5 to October 9 this year. The DPWH is preparing a motion for early trial so that they can continue with the project.
Once they receive the money, the settlers are given 10 days to vacate. If they refuse, the DPWH can demolish their structures.
District Engineer Cruz said this has been a problem for their office.
“We can only do so much. We don’t have the police power like that of local government units. Projects really get delayed because of RROW acquisition problems. We hope the LGUs can help us in this,” Cruz said.
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