The Court of Appeals (CA) has turned down the appeal filed by the city of Valenzuela questioning the valuation of property it seeks to expropriate in Barangay Ugong.
The CA denied for lack of merit the city’s motion for reconsideration and affirmed its May 2021 decision that sided with a lower court’s decision.
The CA cited previous cases in upholding the lower court’s valuation of PHP16,000 per square meter (sqm).
The city claimed that the just compensation awarded by the trial court should have been reduced, considering that the property being expropriated is a vacant and idle lot with a zonal value of only PHP4,300 per sqm.
The city seeks to take over a 6,078-sqm portion of a private property owned by the Aguila family for development into a multi-purpose village complex.
The city claims that being an empty lot, it should not have been priced at par with the developed properties in the area.
“Taking into consideration the above-mentioned rulings as well as the fact that the subject property is classified as a commercial lot, we see no reason to overturn our ruling upholding the trial court’s valuation of PHP16,000 per square meter,” the CA said in its October 7 decision uploaded recently.
The court noted that in a number of cases decided by the Supreme Court involving expropriation of properties located in the same village from 2007 to 2013, the valuation from PHP5,000 to PHP15,000 per sqm was upheld.
Just last September also in Valenzuela, the Supreme Court sided with private landowners William and Belen Gosiaco over the valuation for their 7,526-sqm property which the local government took over for the expansion of the Sitero Francisco Memorial National High School.
The high court said the owners are entitled to the right compensation of PHP2,700 per sqm, instead of the PHP30 which the city wanted to pay in 2013, for a total of PHP20,320,200.
Source: Philippines News Agency
