[ manilastandardtoday.com ] March 8, 2009 ]
THE Caloocan City government has been authorized to take over the Ever Gotesco Grand Central Mall on Rizal Avenue after its management failed to pay P722 million in realty taxes over 23 years, even as stall holders protested the writ of possession issued by a court.
Caloocan Regional Trial Court Acting Presiding Judge Oscar Barrientos, of Branch 126, issued the writ of possession Friday over the building, which is owned by Gotesco Investment Inc. of businessman Jose Go.
“I’d like to assure the tenants as well as their employees that there will be no disruption of business operation,” Mayor Recom Echiverri said in a statement to appease the mall’s tenants.
The tenants accuse Barrientos of undue interest in the case and of ignoring a Manila court’s original jurisdiction over the case.
The tenants’ spokesman, Raymond Ko, said the mall and Gotesco Investment Inc. filed for injunction and damages last Dec. 15, along with a petition for a temporary restraining order against the city government and its register of deeds in a Civil Case that was raffled off to Branch 11.
On Friday, Barrientos ordered the branch sheriff to place the Caloocan government in possession of the properties located between Bustamante Street and 12th Avenue in Barangay 088, which is covered by Transfer Certificate of Title 326321 of the City Registry of Deeds under Tax Declaration D-11-088-0009-C.
He also ordered the sheriff to eject Gotesco Investment and all other parties claiming rights to the mall in favor of the city government.
Echiverri claimed that from 1986 to 2006 alone, Gotesco Investments failed to pay real property taxes due the city worth P722,321,368.55.
In 2007, the city treasurer proceeded to auction the mall following the Local Government Code of 1991 and Revised Charter of the city, but Ko insisted that the Manila court on Dec. 29 granted the injunction against the Caloocan City government.
He said an appeal was made but was denied on Jan. 16 this year, the same day Caloocan filed its petition for a writ with Barrientos.
Ko said Gotesco filed a motion to dismiss the case in Barrientos’ sala, invoking the Manila court’s original jurisdiction, but was denied on Feb. 18, when it disregarded the temporary restraining order issued by a co-equal court.
Voicing the concern of stallholders, he said the writ of possession would mean losses to their business that could run into millions of pesos.
City hall said occupants need not fear losing their stalls as Echiverri had vowed to protect them and their employees.
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