QC brgy. finally owns lot its brgy. hall stood for four

by KRISTINE KATE LOUISE DR. FERNADEZ
University of Santo Tomas Journalism program


QUEZON CITY—AFTER a four-year long petition, a barangay in Quezon City will finally be entitled of the lot its barangay hall occupied for forty years.
The Accounting Department of the Quezon City government has released a certification that an amount of PhP2.2 million will be available for Metrobank as the payment for the lot where the multi-purpose hall of Barangay Dioquino-Zobel is located.
And hopefully before September ends, barangay officials said Metrobank will not bug them anymore with any takeover of the lot.
Brgy. Dioquino-Zobel is within Quezon City’s Cubao district.
According to documents provided by the barangay chairman Oscar Q. Concepcion, the 439 sq. m.-lot was formerly owned by Luzviminda C. Sansao and Lualhati V. Calapini who granted the request of the building of the barangay hall during the 1970s.
However, 15 years later, the owners of the lot mortgaged the lot to Metrobank-Makati. Then Metrobank officials sheriffed the lot since owners failed to redeem the lot given their death in the United States.
The first Notice to Vacate was issued on March 8, 2006 by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 220.
But the barangay council sought the help of the former Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte and wrote to the Deputy Sheriff of RTC, Nilo R. Lapid, to defer the writ of possession while the negotiation of the city government and lot owner was ongoing.
However, last August 2, Concepcion received another Notice to Vacate-cum-court order (dated July 26, 2010), giving them a period of five days to leave and return the lot to Metrobank.
A letter was also sent to Lapid from the office of the current QC Mayor Herbert Bautista with same intent to defer the notice while negotiation on the buy-out is being processed.
According to Concepcion, negotiation to buy the lot has started since 2008. But the city government and the bank could not settle the terms of payment.
He said that the price was not an issue but the city government wanted the property to be turned over to them and, after 60 days, comes the payment.
The taxes, as pointed out by Concepcion, were also entrusted by the bank to the city and vice versa, making the situation “complicated”.
He also thinks that the arrangement for the buy-out took long because both parties (Metrobank and the city government) responded after 3-4 months.
The supposedly takeover of the lot was ceased last August 10.
Last August 12, a meeting was held between the bank and the city government regarding the buy-out, following the release of the certification of the amount the next day.
The PhP2.2 million certification from the QC government was released last August 13.
Concepcion expects that before September ends, everything is fixed and the takeover will not affect the barangay hall anymore.
However, four families will be affected by the takeover after they were identified as informal settlers. (480 words)