The Negros Occidental Provincial Legal Office is currently serving third notices to vacate to112 families living on an about 7,000-square meter property in Brgy 39, Bacolod City.
Provincial Legal Officer Alberto Nellas Jr. said on Tuesday, Nov. 26, that there are some residents who received the notices to vacate while others refused to accept them.
Nellas said they have to comply with the three-notice rule before proceeding with the filing of an ejectment case.
In 1954, the Lizares family donated the property to the Negros Occidental High School to be used as a school garden.
However, the land was not used for that purpose, provincial and national government offices were built on the donated property that violated the Deed of Donation, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said earlier.
So in 2012 the Lizares family filed a case for cancellation of Deed of Donation, Lacson said.
The court ruled in favor of the Lizares family in 2021, but they agreed to a compromise agreement with the provincial government, he said.
It was agreed that the about 1.1 hectare property on which provincial and national government offices have already been built would remain with the government, while the rest of the property occupied by informal settlers would be returned to the Lizareses, he said.
The agreement was that the 7,000 square meters property be returned to the Lizareses free of any informal settlers, Lacson said.
That is why residents living on the property have been issued notices to vacate.*