THE Supreme Court has ordered the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) to immediately pay at a substantially reduced amount the 231 persons whose lots and properties were expropriated eight years ago to give way for the development of the second phase of the Batangas Port Zone.

In a 129-page decision, the Court en banc granted the petition of the PPA that it should pay a lower price for the covered lot. It modified an earlier ruling issued by the High Court’s First Division, reducing the total compensation of more than P13.9 billion to only P1.08 billion.

The Court explained that after a thorough review of the documents and evidence, it was clear that the 1.298 million hectares of land that PPA expropriated were agricultural lands, contrary to previous findings which classified it as commercial or industrial.

It said that the fair value of the subject lots at the time of their expropriation should only be pegged at P425 per square meter, not P5,500 as per decision by the First Division.

The High court directed the PPA to pay the just compensation with 12 percent interest per year from the date of PPA’s entry to the lots or on September 11, 2001 until fully paid.

In case of overpayment, the Court directed the claimants to refund the excess to the PPA.

The Court based its conclusion on the tax declarations of the claimants, aerial photographs of the disputed lots and Department of Finance Order No. 31-97 which set the zonal valuation of several barangays covering the subject lots at P400 per square meter.

 Furthermore, the Court said the lots owned by the claimants were undeveloped and vacant, except for fishponds.

“The characterization of the disputed lots is undeniably agricultural lands coming in the form of horticultural land, salt bed, fish ponds and swampy areas . . . If the adage ‘pictures don’t lie’ is to be followed then those aerial photographs give a conclusive dimension to what they depict,” the SC said.