City lawyer: FLI has no basis to withhold payment of SRP lot

CEBU, Philippines - A Cebu City lawyer said that the Filinvest Land Incorporated has no legal grounds to withhold its payment to the city government for the lot it bought at the South Road Properties because the property has no defect.

Lawyer Janeses Ponce said there is no reason for FLI to be afraid and even consider the levy imposed by Sheriff Eugene Fuentes against a 9.7-hectare lot in SRP because the action of the Sheriff is null and void.

“What’s preventing them is a case totally unrelated to the contract. The Sheriff decided to choose that property of all the properties, which still remains questionable,” Ponce said.

City lawyers maintain the position that the Sheriff violated some rules when he did not let the city choose the property to be levied.

“It wasn’t our choice to put an annotation,” Ponce said. Ponce said that FLI’s obligation is only to comply with their duty in accordance with the contract entered into.

“It would have been a different case if the property itself has defects. For example, there’s something wrong with the titling, sayop ang (defective) survey or anything where the city is at fault,” he explained.

Ponce said there was nothing wrong with the property itself. The property has no encumbrances.

Ponce said that the levy imposed by Sheriff Fuentes is the latter’s decision as maybe advised by somebody.

“We are discussing what course of action to take. There are risks to it,” Ponce said.

FLI is supposed to make its fourth payment to the city last March 5 amounting to P245.2 million but it never came. In a letter to Mayor Michael Rama, FLI advised the city that it is withholding its payment for 2012 until the notices of levy annotated on the SRP titles to be released to them are removed.

Assistant City Treasurer Emma Villarete said that they are still to review the contract with FLI to determine if the latter shall be imposed a penalty for late payment. She said that the matter has already been referred to the City Legal Office.

Villarete said that the Sheriff could have just chosen to levy the Citi Center Commercial Complex in Barangay Kamagayan that is valued more than the amount being claimed by the Ralloses. — Jessica Ann R. Pareja/FPL (THE FREEMAN)