City a no-show in case vs. condo occupants

The city government failed to reply to the summons of the Regional Trial Court and present its evidences in the injunction case filed against it by the occupants of the city-owned condominium on Natalio Bacalso Avenue.

The city, represented by Mayor Tomas Osmeña, received the summons last September 29 and was given 15 days to answer. But in yesterday's scheduled hearing, nobody from the city appeared and neither was there a response.

This prompted the petitioners' counsel Gil Diglasan Tanyag to file a motion declaring the city, as the respondent, in default.

Should the RTC-branch 23 judge Generosa Labra grant the motion, the city would lose its chance to present its counter-evidences because the court would admit only the evidence of the petitioners.

The occupants filed this civil case for preliminary mandatory injunction after the city had the power to the condominium allegedly cut off last September 13.

The Visayan Electric Company, in its notice, did not cite the grounds for cutting off the power supply of the entire building despite claims of the occupants that they already paid their bills.

Tanyag contended, for the occupants, that there was probably an "error in the issuance of permits" for the power connection. But his clients said they are apprehensive of what the city might do next to disturb their occupancy.

The city has insisted that the condominium was intended for the urban poor, especially those whose houses were demolished in the late 1990s. But it was found out later on that some of the occupants were businessmen and government employees who would not qualify as urban poor.

The city since then claimed that the building has 69 illegal occupants, and since last year, the city has been issuing orders to these illegal occupants to vacate the units but it failed.

The city finally filed an ejectment case against them, which is now pending at RTC-branch 8. Besides, the mayor has plans to convert the condominium into an extension office of the Cebu City Medical Center.

One of the occupants who attended yesterday's hearing said she had been paying the rent for two years until Osmeña became mayor and refused to accept rental payment from them anymore. - Liv G. Campo