Businessman Felix Yusay went back to God last week aware that he had won his fight for justice for Sugarland Hotel and himself in the case of the demolition by the Air Transportation Office of the fourth floor of his hotel in Bacolod City .

On November 15, the 19 th Division of the Court of Appeals, issued its ruling awarding to Yusay P8.6 million as compensation for the removal of the fourth floor of the hotel.

The decision, penned principally by Associate Justice Pampio A. Abarintos, also granted lawyer Reynaldo Bagatsing P600,000 in attorney's fees.

The defendants had appealed the ruling of the Regional Trial Court Branch 49 to the Court of Appeals.

The RTC on Dec. 28, 2005, had ordered Bacolod City and the Negros Provincial Government to pay Yusay and Sugarland Hotel P4 million and P3.6 million plus 12 percent annual interest for the value of the fourth floor as appraised by the Untied Architects Guild of the Philippines-Bacolod Chapter.

In addition, it also granted the claim of Yusay and the hotel of P12 million by way of earned profits for the period that it stopped operations due to the demolition and ordered P1 million as moral damages.

The court also ordered defendants to pay jointly and severally P1 million as exemplary damages, and P600,000 in attorney's fees as well as to pay the cost of the suit.

On the cross-claim, the Department of Transportation and Communication and ATO were ordered to reimburse Bacolod City and Negros Occidental the P3.6 million and P4 million, respectively.

Sugarland Hotel was originally owned by Jose Pijuan and was sold in a public auction to Felix Yusay by the Development Bank of the Philippines in 1973.

The hotel then had four floors. But in April, 1967, Director Jesus Singson of the ATO denied the request of architect Silverio Ureta to construct a fourth floor annex.

On May 13, 1994 , then ATO chief Panfilo Villaruel Jr. ordered the closure of the Bacolod Airport , contending that the third and fourth floors of the hotel and the squatters within the vicinity of the Bacolod airport posed obstruction to aerial navigation.

On May 20, ATO presided over a meeting with Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Montelibano Jr. where Vice Gov. Romeo Gamboa Jr. represented the province, and Yusay represented the Sugarland Hotel. A Memorandum of Understanding was later signed by the conferees with then Presidential Adviser Daniel Lacson Jr. and Rep. Manuel Puey as witnesses.

Among others, the MOU stipulated that a re-survey of the height of the Sugarland Hotel be immediately done with the ATO, the DPWH, along with the provincial and the city engineer's office as members of the group.

Yusay agreed that if the re-survey showed that only the fourth floor or a portion thereof will have to be demolished, he was willing to have it demolished in five to seven days. The province and the city agreed to pay subsequently for the value of the demolished portion. In addition, ATO also agreed to reopen the Bacolod airport on the condition that the safety of flights will not be prejudiced.

On May 25, Yusay consented to the demolition of the fourth floor of the hotel, and the Bacolod airport resumed operations.

T he Sangguniang Panlungsod of Bacolod City issued Resolutions 930 and 931 on Nov. 3 that same year, declaring the undemolished parapet, shells of five rooms and water pressure tanks as public nuisance to be summarily abated.

Both Bacolod and Negros provincial government also refused to remit the amounts they had pledged under the MOU.

On Nov. 7, Sugarland gave Ramiro Garcia, then chair of the Airport Task Force, the authority to demolish the remaining portions of the fourth floor of the hotel.

Despite the lack of a court order, the city engineer accompanied by five police and demolition crew undertook the demolition supervised by the Bacolod Airport Task Force.

The hotel subsequently was forced to stop operation and resumed business only three years later.

Subsequently, it was discovered that the height of the building did not exceed the allowable height clearance.

The CA also upheld the legality of the MOU entered into by the city of Bacolod and the provincial government as binding. But the CA, however, ruled that nowhere in the MOU did the DOTC and the ATO bind themselves to pay or reimburse the payment made by the city and province.

Regarding the claim of P12 million in lost income and profit which Yusay and Sugarland were asking, they failed to present evidence to substantiate their alleged lost of earnings, the CA said.

The court, however, awarded “temperate or moderate” damages of P6 million to Yusay and Sugarland Hotel, which may be awarded when the court finds that some pecuniary loss had been suffered by the claimant but its amount cannot be proved with certainty.

The court also awarded Yusay P1 million in moral damages and P1 million in exemplary damages.*RLE

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