G.R. No. 228354 - CONCORDE CONDOMINIUM, INC., VS. PHILIPPINE NATIONAL BANK, PNB-INTERNATIONAL FINANCE LIMITED, AND NEW PPI CORPORATION (FORMERLY PULP AND PAPER, INC.). [G.R. No. 228359] NEW PPI CORPORATION (FORMERLY PULP AND PAPER, INC.), VS. CONCORDE CONDOMINIUM, INC..DECISION - Supreme Court E-Lib

Ruling

WHEREFORE, all the foregoing premises considered, a judgment is hereby rendered as follows: 1. Ordering the respondent Pulp and Paper, Inc. to compensate and reimburse complainant Concorde Condominium, Inc. the amount of money equivalent to the present market value of the land segregated from the mass of the common areas of the condominium project, which is covered by TCT No. 206285 and later TCT No. 208874; 2. Ordering the respondent Pulp and Paper, Inc. to restore and provide to the Concorde Condominium project parking lots or slots, whether on-site or off-site, with the same area and use as the lot area, which was removed or taken from it by reason of the alteration of the project's common area; 3. Ordering respondent Pulp and Paper, Inc. to pay CCI damages in the amount of P100,000.00 and attorney's fees in the amount of P20,000.00. All other claims and counterclaims are denied. [17] CCI elevated the case to the HLURB Board. During the appeal, Landmart Philippines, Inc. (Landmart), a unit owner and member of CCI, filed a motion to intervene, which was initially denied by the HLURB. On motion for reconsideration, Landmart's intervention was granted. CCI and PNB, PNB-IFL and PPI were ordered to comment on its complaint-in-intervention. The Board ordered the remand of the case to the HLURB-NCRFO for the determination of the rights of the intervenor. Two more unit owners and CCI members: Lasquite Foodstar, Inc. and Majette Tan Torres, were also allowed to intervene. On December 14, 2005, Arbiter San Vicente rendered a new decision [18] upholding the jurisdiction of the HLURB over the case. This reversed its earlier ruling that PNB-IFL was a mortgagee in good faith and PNB was an innocent assignee of the foreclosed property. It held that, based on the master deed, the two parcels of land had been set aside and reserved by PPI from its own estate and declared as part of the common areas of the Concorde. Thus, PPI cannot unilaterally take away these properties from the mass of the common areas without violating the law and its contractual undertaking with the unit owners. Recall that the CCI had been designated by PPI to hold and manage the project, specifically, the common areas. For CCI to discharge these responsibilities, PPI needs to turn over the titles to the project, including those of the common areas. On the approval of the alteration of the condominium project plan Arbiter San Vicente reiterated his previous finding that PPI committed an illegal act of presenting an inexistent CCI Board resolution, in its request for approval of the amendment of the master deed and ensuing alteration of the project plan. PPI did not meet the strict requirement of the law when it submitted a mere certificate of its corporate secretary. He also maintained his earlier ruling that all the acts of the government agencies concerned in the approval of the re-survey and alteration of the project plan, amendment of the master deed, and issuance of new certificates