Controversy over property sale resolution is unresolved
LEGAL QUESTIONS REMAIN
AS the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) missed another regular session last May 7 for the second consecutive week, the controversy over the resolution passed hastily in a special session by nine Dagupan City councilors, authorizing Mayor Benjamin Lim to negotiate for the sale of MC Adore and a 10-hectare lot owned by the city in Barangay Talibaew, Calasiao remains unresolved.
As provided in the Local Government code, the passage of the resolution is deemed illegal since the special session was convened with no known emergency existing at the time and no formal notices were issued to all councilors for the meeting that was postponed from 10 o’clock a.m. to three o’clock p.m. when no quorum could be established.
Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, chair of the SP, was on an official trip to receive an award in the US when the special session was convened by the mayor. She remains aghast over the manner by which the resolution was adopted.
She said that if the properties have to be sold at all, these must fetch prices at prevailing market rates assuming the circumstances surrounding its adoption can be deemed legal.
Fernandez said the city council should not approve a negotiated sale that would be far below the market rates
A regular SP session was scheduled on April 30 but the councilors who were present during the special session were a no-show. Only Fernandez and Councilors Maybelyn Fernandez, Alfie Fernandez and Jigs Seen were present for the roll call.
Fernandez, who was the acting mayor last week as Mayor Benjamin S. Lim was on leave and reportedly left on a trip to Switzerland along with his son Councilor Bryan Lim, stressed that the MC Adore alone could fetch as much as P400 million based alone on the value of the land which is located at the center of the city’s downtown area.
Fernandez also deplored the inclusion of the city’s 10-hectare property in Calasaio intended for a housing project for city government employees. She said the disposition of the property was never discussed by the mayor with the council at anytime in the past.
Meanwhile, a report from the municipal assessor of Calasiao estimates the Calasiao property at P900 per square meter but since five hectares of the property had already been backfilled and a concrete road now leads to the site, it could fetch up to P2,000 to P3,000 per square meter.
City hall has yet to make a public announcement whether the negotiation for the sale of the two properties had already started.
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