No default for city in condo hearings

The Cebu City government yesterday downplayed the motion of the occupants of the city-owned condominium for the city to be declared in default for failing to answer the summons issued by the court.

City lawyer Rodolfo Golez, who represents the city said the city cannot be declared in default because it was the fault of the defense lawyer Gil Diglasan Tanyag, who submitted an incomplete pleading.

"His pleading does not have page 2. How can we make our answer intelligently with an incomplete pleading," Golez said.

Golez added that they already filed a motion for bill of particulars, which in effect suspends the 15-day grace period for them to submit their answer.

The Cebu City government, according to Tanyag failed to reply to the summons sent by the Regional Trial Court branch 23 and failed to attend the hearing of the preliminary mandatory injunction case filed by the occupants of the city-owned condominium at Natalio Bacalso Avenue last October 25.

Records show that the city received the summons on September 29 and was given 15 days to answer.

The occupants at the city-owned condominium filed the civil case against the city government after the city cut-off the electricity at the condominium last September 13. The Visayan Electric Company, in its notice of disconnection, did not cite the grounds for cutting the power supply at the condominium even if occupants have already paid their bills.

The city government, on the other hand, filed an ejectment case in the same court against the 69 occupants for their failure to pay rent.

The city claimed that the occupants have not been paying rent while the city keeps on paying for the interest and principal of the loan used to construct the building.

Former mayor Alvin Garcia's administration had the condominium built in 1997 for P26 million purportedly to house some of the city's urban poor.

The city government is supposed to collect a monthly rental of P1,000 to P4,000 from each door occupant. The collection would pay for the 12 percent or P3 million yearly interest of the P26-million loan.

It is now paying Land Bank of the Philippines P9.8 million quarterly in amortization, which could have been partly shouldered by the amortization of the beneficiaries. - Mitchelle P. Calipayan