‘Return the land, we give back P37.8M’
Abandoned cottages and empty backfilled land are features of the idle 25-hectare Balili estate purchased for P98.9 million by the Cebu provincial government in 2008. The court ordered last week part of the payment refunded.
(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
87-year-old widow of Luis Balili has insisted that the seaside property they sold to the Cebu provincial government in 2008 was covered by land titles.
In a pleading filed in court last Friday, Amparo Balili, through her lawyer Caesar Tabotabo, said even the submerged parts of the property in barangay Tinaan, City of Naga is covered by valid land titles.
Will she comply with the court’s order to return the province’s payment of P37.8 million?
The lawyer said, “Ipauli una ang yuta kay titulado man na (The property should be returned first to to the family because they were titled).”
“I can sell the Balili property for five times more than the province bought it,” said Tabotabo in a text message to CDN yesterday.
“These (parcels of land) were covered under the Torrens system. Since the properties are titled, they belong to the registered owner,” said Tabotabo in the motion for reconsideration filed before Judge Raphael Yrastorza of the Regional Trial Court Branch 14.
The judge last week ordered heirs of the late engineer Luis Balili to return to the Cebu provincial government about P37.8 million that was paid for portions of the controversial Balili beach property that were found to be underwater.
The administration of former Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia filed the petition to recover payment made for 9.4 hectares of 24.9 hectares bought from the Balilis in 2008 in the City of Naga.
The judge ruled that the Balilis have no legal right to receive payment since these portions were “inalienable and indisposable part of public domain, hence, not subject to the commerce of man.”
Revert first
But Tabotabo said the submerged lots have not been reverted to public domain.
To be declared “inalienable and indisposable part of the public domain,” he said the Office of the Solicitor General has to first institute reversion proceedings.
“When the court then decides that the land has to be reverted to public domain, only then will said land be considered so. But until that happens, that land is still considered privately-owned,” Tabotabo said.
In his pleading, Tabotabo said the provincial government hasn’t submitted any evidence to prove that they were deceived by the Balilis when the property was purchased.
However, the lawyer said “the court cured the defect.”
Mismatch
“The court seems to forget the great disparity in the relative positions of the parties—a David vs Goliath match—with the aid of the entire Palestinian army,” Tabotabo said.
“The plaintiffs are the Province of Cebu with thousands of employees at its beck and call… The other plaintiff, former governor Garcia, claims to be the best governor Cebu ever had.
“On the other side of the corner is an old retired nurse (Amparo) and a lawyer (Romeo). And yet, the court, is leaning towards and favoring the plaintiffs of the ‘little guys’ who are clearly overmatched,” he added.
And if indeed the province had reservations about the submerged portions of the property, Tabotabo said the local government should not have bought it.
“Didn’t the plaintiffs conduct a relocation survey before purchasing the Balili property? That would be the height of negligence and incompetence,” he said.
He requested the court to hear their pleading on Friday, March 20.
Lawyer Romeo Balili, the executor of the Balili Estate, is also seeking the court’s reconsideration.
A post-purchase geodetic survey was made by the Capitol after environmentalists questioned the deal.
Then governor Garcia in a press conference apologized and said she was “sorry” to have been misled about the property after the survey showed that 8 hectares were submerged in seawater and 1.4 hectares were mangroves.
The Balili family earlier offered the seaside property at over P1,000 per square meter. But the Capitol negotiated to lower the price to P400 per square meter.
The Balili property sale is the subject of graft charges against former Gov. Garcia and five others pending before the Sandiganbayan.
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