G.R. Nos. 145156-57 - SOLID HOMES, INC., VS. SPOUSES ANCHETA K. TAN AND CORAZON DE JESUS TAN.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

Accordingly, in a letter dated December 18, 1995, respondents demanded on petitioner to provide the needed utility systems and clear the area of squatters and other obstructions by the end of January, 1996 to enable them to start the construction of their house thereon and to allow other lot owners in the area a full access to and peaceful possession of their respective lots, conformably with P.D. No. 957 which requires an owner or developer of a subdivision project to develop the same within one year from the issuance of its license. Having received no reply from petitioner, respondents filed with the Field Office of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB), NCR a complaint for specific performance and damages therein praying, inter alia , that petitioner be ordered to provide the needed facilities in the premises and rid the same of squatters; or, in the alternative, for petitioner to replace respondents' property with another lot in the same subdivision where there are facilities and sans squatters. After due proceedings, the Housing and Land Use Arbiter, in a decision dated September 17, 1996, [3] rendered judgment for the respondents by directing petitioner: to perform its obligation to provide subdivision facilities in the subject premises and to rid the premises of squatters. In the alternative, at the option of complainants xxx to replace subject lot with a lot of similar size and with available facilities, located in the subject subdivision. to pay complainants P20,000.00 as and by way of attorney's fees. In the same decision, the Arbiter dismissed the complaint against petitioner's co-defendant, Purita Soliven. Dissatisfied, petitioner went on appeal to the HLURB Board of Commissioners, which, in a decision dated April 16, 1997, [4] affirmed that of the Arbiter. From there, petitioner elevated the case to the Office of the President (O.P.). In a decision [5] dated June 3, 1999, the O.P., thru then Executive Secretary Ronaldo B. Zamora, affirmed with modification the appealed decision of the HLURB Board of Commissioners, thus: WHEREFORE, premises considered, the first paragraph of the decision appealed from is hereby AFFIRMED with the modification that in case Solid Homes, Inc. fails to replace subject lot with a lot of similar size and with available facilities located in the subdivision, because it had already sold or transferred all of its properties in the subdivision, it shall pay spouses Ancheta Tan and Corazon Tan the total amount received from them as purchase price, with legal rate of interest from February 1985, until fully paid. Save for this modification, the decision appealed from is hereby AFFIRMED. SO ORDERED (Italics, ours). On June 25, 1999, respondents filed a motion for partial reconsideration of the aforementioned decision, praying for the deletion of that portion thereof giving petitioner the option of merely paying them the purchase price with interest in the event petitioner "fails to replace subject lot w