Question & AnswerQ&A (Act No. 3371)
The main purpose of Act No. 3371 is to authorize the Director of Lands to sell certain lots in the barrios of San Roque, Tinago, Tihiro, and Panting in the City of Cebu to their original possessors and claimants or their successors in interest.
Original possessors and claimants refer only to those who appeared as respective claimants of the specified lots at the trial of Cadastral Case No. 9, G.L.R.O. No. 9465, in the Cadastral Court of Cebu.
The lots covered are those specifically enumerated in Section 1 of the Act, situated in the City and Province of Cebu, which were contested in Cadastral Case No. 9 and declared Insular Government property.
The price shall be equal to the amount at which the lots were assessed by the Government of the Philippine Islands for taxation purposes in 1916, the year when the cadastral case was tried.
They have one year from the passage of the Act to purchase the lots.
Within thirty days from the passage of the Act, the Director of Lands must publish a public notice of the sale once a week for three consecutive weeks in the Official Gazette (in English and Spanish) and in a newspaper of general circulation in Cebu (in Visayan dialect).
The lot shall be sold to all the heirs pro indiviso, or share and share alike.
Yes, lots that have already been sold by the Insular Government as of the date of the Act's passage and those that have become part of the northern extension of the Cebu Wharf are excluded from the provisions of this Act.
The Director of Lands is authorized to draw up and sign all necessary contracts and deeds on behalf of the Insular Government to ensure speedy compliance and enforcement of the Act.
The Act took effect upon its passage on December 3, 1927.