MANDAUE City Mayor Jonas Cortes has assured the stakeholders of the Eversley Childs Sanitarium and General Hospital and the other occupants of a 25-hectare property in Barangay Jagobiao facing dispossession that the city government will endeavor to resolve the issue on ownership of the land.Cortes made the statement Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, after the Cebu Provincial Government demanded that the hospital, the Department of Health-Treatment and Rehabilitation Center Cebu City, and a barangay hall, vacate the lot within 15 days after receipt of the demand letter dated Sept. 8.The mayor said the city government will further look into the issue of ownership of the property, adding that this is also claimed by the national government.“In fact, tax declarations covering the property are under the name of the Republic of the Philippines,” said Cortes.“Rest assured that the City will endeavor to resolve this matter as this property involves a government hospital serving patients not only from Mandaue city but also residents of northern Cebu and housing projects involving hundreds of Mandauehanons,” he added.The Provincial Legal Office (PLO) had sent a demand letter to the head of each of the facilities—Dr. Pythagoras Zerna, chief of ECSGH; Dr. Jasmine Peralta, chief of the DOH-TRC Cebu City; and Michael Masinas, Jagobiao barangay captain.According to the PLO, the Provincial Government is the “lawful owner” of the land, which has an area of 255,540 square meters or 25.554 hectares.DOH 7 Director Jaime Bernadas earlier told SunStar Cebu that they already endorsed the case to their central office’s legal office in Manila.Peralta, for her part, expressed hope that the Provincial Government will donate the lot where the ECSGH and the rehabilitation center are situated.Barangay Captain Masinas said Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia claimed that the area was reportedly part of the friar lands and was reportedly donated by the Archdiocese of Cebu to the Province in the 1930s.