The Negros Occidental provincial government paid P11,160,500 to Sugarland Hotel in Bacolod City on Wednesday in compliance with a Supreme Court (SC) order, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said Thursday, January 11.
“The check was given to the sheriff and the provincial government is just waiting for the issuance of a return service of the writ of execution stating that the province has fully satisfied the decision rendered by the Supreme Court,” he said.
The SC ordered the Negros Occidental and Bacolod City governments to pay the hotel for damages for their part in the destruction of its fourth floor in 1994.
The SC decision was final and executory, the Bacolod City government will comply but is still looking for the source of funds, City Legal Officer Romeo Carlos Ting Jr. said Thursday.
The city government owes the hotel about P13 million after factoring in interest, Diaz said earlier.
The high court earlier ruled that the top floor of the hotel did not constitute an obstruction to aerial navigation which was cited as the reason for the demolition.
On May 13, 1994, Capt. Panfilo Villaruel Jr., in his capacity as then Air Transportation Office chief and Department of Transportation and Communication assistant secretary, ordered the closure of the then Bacolod City Domestic Airport in Barangay Singcang, Bacolod.
One of the reasons he gave for the order were the presence of the third and fourth floors of Sugarland Hotel and the informal settlers around the vicinity of the airport, all of which were deemed obstructions to aerial navigation, the SC said in its Dec. 6, 2021 decision.
Eventually, it was agreed that only the fourth floor of Sugarland Hotel would be demolished.
As a result of the demolition, the third, second, and first floors of the hotel also sustained damages. The lights were shattered as concrete debris fell on the lower floors. Even the satellite, elevator machinery, air conditioning compressor situated on top of the hotel, and the water tank were destroyed, the Sugarland Hotel owner said.
Sugarland Hotel deteriorated with the removal of the parapet at the western portion of the third floor rendering the hotel building vulnerable to natural elements such as uncontrollable flow and seepage of rainwater, which even found its way to the second and first floors of the hotel.
It was forced to close and suspend operations on Aug. 1, 1994. It took three years of major renovation and repairs before Sugarland Hotel was able to resume business.
Later, Sugarland Hotel discovered that the height of its building did not pose a threat to the safety of aerial navigation because it did not exceed the allowable height clearance of 2.5 percent gradient required by Administrative Order No. 5, Series of 1967 for domestic airports.*