By Kristine Joy V. Patag
Reporter

THE MAKATI Metropolitan Trial Court (MeTC) Branch 61 on Tuesday issued a Notice to Vacate to Sunvar Realty Development Corporation to leave the Mile-Long property along Amorsolo Street in Makati City.

Quoting a part of the dispositive portion of the resolution by the Makati MeTC Branch 61, Sheriff IV Robert T. Bautista issued a three-page Notice to Vacate that reads: “Ordering defendant Sunvar Realty Corporation and all those claiming rights under them, natural and judicial to vacate the premises they respectively occupy, particularly the subject premises described and covered by plaintiff’s Transfer Certificate Title No. (458365) located between Dela Rosa and Arnaiz Street in Legazpi Village, Makati City.”

“You are hereby given a period of three days from receipt thereof to surrender the possession of the above-described property with all the improvements existing thereon or vacate the premises within such given time, after which the undersigned will place the petitioner in actual and physical possession thereof to duly satisfy the Writ of Execution,” Mr. Bautista added.

Solicitor-General Jose C. Calida in a statement yesterday said he is ordering “Sunvar Realty, and all other tenants claiming rights under it, to surrender to the possession of the Mile-Long Property following the CA Resolution dated 14 August 2017.”

Part of the said CA resolution of the Former Fifth Division, Manila, reads: “Accordingly, a Writ of Execution is hereby issued to implement the Decision dated June 10, 2015 of the [Makati MeTC Branch 61] .”

“The said CA Resolution remanded the case back to Makati RTC Branch 141 and directed the sheriff to execute the 10 June 2015 Decision of Makati MeTC Branch 61, which ordered Sunvar to vacate the Mile Long property,” the OSG noted in a statement.

Mr. Calida, in a statement last July 28, claimed the Rufino-Prieto-owned real-estate firm continued to illegally occupy the government-owned commercial property without due payment to the government.

“Sunvar occupied the Mile-Long property on February 28, 1982. The lease agreement expired on December 31, 2002. Sunvar continued to occupy the property despite the expiration of the lease,” said a statement by the Office of the Solicitor-General (OSG), which also quoted Mr. Calida as saying:

“Since 2003 or for the last 14 years and 7 months, you have been squatting, illegally using and occupying the Mile-Long Property. Despite notices, Sunvar continued to remain in possession and collect millions of rentals from its tenants.”

Mr. Calida, yesterday, posted in his Twitter account a photo of him “executing” the said Notice to Vacate.

Sunvar, also July 28, released a statement to the media that disputed Mr. Calida’s allegations as well as his chronology of the Mile Long lease.

The company said it had entered into a P16.8-million sub-lease agreement with the government and renewed that lease in 2002 for another 25 years. “Sunvar likewise tendered payment of rentals for the extended period,” the company said.

Despite this, the National Power Corp. (Napocor), which originally leased the property to the the Technology Resource Center Foundation, Inc. (since dissolved and its functions assumed by the Philippine Development Alternatives Foundation [PDAF]), “informed PDAF of the non-renewal of the sub-lease….Sunvar responded that Napocor and the government must honor the lease agreement contract,” Sunvar’s statement said.

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