A water service cooperative in barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City is asking the Cebu provincial government to allow them to acquire the 30-square meter property that they now occupy.
Engr. Antonio Canoy, chairman of the Langub Kalunasan Multipurpose Cooperative, said they need the lot title so their office building won’t be demolished.
It will also qualify them to secure funding assistance from government agencies and facilitate the expansion of their operations, he said.
The province owned lot they occupy is now subject of a recovery case filed against them by former governor Gwen Garcia. A case mediation has been set on Tuesday at the sala of RTC branch 6 judge Pamela Baring-Uy.
Approved
“We need to secure our office because our cooperative is engaged in the water services. We bring water to families in the mountains not serviced by MCWD,” he said. The cooperative now provides water to 500 households in barangays Kalunasan and Guadalupe.
HUDCC earlier made an offer to give their cooperative a P150,000 grant but they failed to qualify for the assistance because they are required to present the title of the property.
Canoy said he already made an offer to buy the lot that they occupy during the administration of former governor Pablo Garcia.
His offer to buy was even approved by the Cebu Provincial Board in 2003, the same time that they also built their two-storey office building.
But actual purchase was not pursued after former governor Gwen Garcia opted to just recover the lot. The property is among the many province-owned lots that she wanted to take back when she was governor.
The lot recovery case remains pending in court.
Canoy said he already met with Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III, who told him last year that he wanted the lot donated to the cooperative to defray the cost that they already spent on the lot recovery case against them.
Canoy said, Davide wanted the donation plan reviewed first.