Yuchengco wins condo battle after 3 decades, one lawyer shot dead
After nearly three decades and her lawyer being shot dead, stockbroker Vivian Yuchengco has won the fight to have the illegal penthouse constructed atop Legaspi Towers 200 condominium along Paseo de Roxas demolished.
Yuchengco’s lawyer, Art Ignacio, was shot dead during the heat of the litigation, his murder still unresolved. The stockbroker, fearing for her own life, decamped from Legaspi Towers, despite her then being married to former president Corazon ‘Cory’ Aquino spokesman Teodoro Locsin Jr.
Erected in the 1970s, the Legaspi Towers 200 is a seven-story office condominium with two small penthouse units built on top of each other.
According to court records, real estate developer Conrado Leviste, father of former Batangas vice governor Mark Leviste, acquired in 1989 the upper penthouse unit from architect Leon Antonio Mercado.
Leviste then claimed that he owned the air rights above the Mercado unit and built the contested structure after securing the approval of the then president of the condo association, unknown to the board and the homeowners, and subsequently the Makati City engineer’s.
Despite the initial barricade erected by the condominium association and the court suit initiated by Yuchengco on behalf of the other unit owners, Leviste not only prevailed and finished the construction, but also managed to have the Makati Regional Trial Court and the Court of Appeals declare him a builder in good faith.
The judicial declaration Yuchengco of good faith would have entitled Leviste under the Civil Code to monetary damages should the condominium association demolish or take over the contested property.
But in a reversal of fortune, the Supreme Court last month not only ordered the contested structure be demolished by the Leviste Management System, the owner of record, “at its own expense,” the high tribunal also reversed the lower courts’ ruling that Leviste was a builder in good faith.
Articles 448 and 546 of the Civil Code on builders in good faith are inapplicable in cases covered by the Condominium Act where the owner of the land and the builder are already bound by specific legislation on the subject property, the Condominium Act, and by contract, the Master Deed and the By-Laws of the condominium corporation, said Associate Justice Teresita Leonardode Castro.
The by-laws of Legaspi Towers 200 specifically provides that extraordinary improvements or additions must be approved by the members in a regular or special meeting called for the purpose prior to the construction, said De Castro, in what appears to be a landmark ruling on the widespread practice of illegal add-ons within condominiums.
“Indeed, the application of Article 448 to the present situation is highly iniquitous, in that an owner, also found to be in good faith, will be forced to either appropriate the illegal structure (and impliedly be burdened with the costs of its demolition) or to allow the continuance of such an illegal structure that violates the law and the Master Deed, and threatens the structural integrity of the condominium building,” De Castro said, with Associate Justices Mariano del Castillo, Francis Jardeleza, and Noel Tijam concurring.
Leviste, who is said to be in poor health after suffering a heart attack, could not be reached for comment.
He was last reported to be building an 85-hectare residential resort in Lian, Batangas in partnership with Sta. Lucia Land.
Among the tenants of Legaspi Towers 200 are the multinational contractor Foundation Specialists and Public Reclamation Authority, with the government office occupying the seventh floor.
The five-decade-old building itself is ripe for redevelopment, but that is another battle that is still unfolding.
Heard through the grapevine
Political columnist and publisher Ninez Cacho-Olivares, who is also suffering from poor health, has been forced to give up The Daily Tribune in favor of crisis PR operator Willie Fernandez.
A BFF of Senator Loren Legarda, Fernandez apparently plans to merge the Tribune operations with his news aggregation website, Concept News Central.
E-mail: moneygoround.manila@yahoo.com