JOAQUIN GOZUN AND CARMEN VICENCIO, PETITIONERS, VS. THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES AND THE AUDITOR GENERAL, RESPONDENTS.

By way of petition for review, the petitioners appeal from a
decision of the Auditor General denying their claim against the Government for
the sum of P21,924, arising from the following facts:

In December, 1940, negotiations were begun between the
Government and the petitioners for the use and occupancy by the former of a
strip of land belonging to the latter, containing an area of 60.90 hectares,
which the Government needed to construct and maintain a public dyke from the
Pampanga River, municipality of Arayat, to the Candaba Swamp, municipality of
Candaba, province of Pampanga. For such use and occupancy of the land the
Government offered to pay the petitioners the assessed value, or P500 per
hectare, while the petitioners asked for P1,000 per hectare. The war
subsequently broke out without the parties’ having reached a final agreement. In
the meantime the Government went ahead with its project and took possession of
the land. After the liberation the negotiations to fix the price were resumed,
and the parties finally reached an agreement which was embodied in a public
document entitled “Channel and Dyke Right-of-Way Agreement,” dated December 31,
1946, whereby the Government paid to the petitioners, and the latter accepted,
P60,900 “as damages for the use and occupancy” of the land hereinabove
mentioned. In other words, the Government finally agreed to pay the price of
P1,000 per hectare originally asked by the petitioners, and the latter accepted
it although they had sought to raise the price to P1,500 per hectare on the
ground that the land had increased in value since 1940.

After receiving payment of the said sum of P60,900 from the
Government, the petitioners filed the present claim for P21,924 as interest on
the said sum of P60,900 for six years at the legal rate of 6% per annum. The
Auditor General denied said claim on two grounds: first, that the sum of P60,900
was, according to the agreement above mentioned, in payment of the full
compensation for the use and occupancy of the land, including whatever damages
might have been sustained by the petitioners incident to such use and occupancy;
and, second, that under the law the Government is not liable to pay interest
unless it expressly engages to do so.

The petitioners’ appeal is grounded on the argument that to all
intents and purposes the Government expropriated and took possession of the land
in December, 1940, and that since it did not pay the price until January, 1947,
it should pay interest on that price during the intervening period of six years.
That, we think, is not a valid argument.

In the first place, the premise is wrong. There was no
expropriation or condemnation proceeding. What there was, was a voluntary
agreement between the parties whereby the claim of the petitioners for damages
arising from the perpetual use and occupancy of their land by the Government was
fully liquidated as of December 31, 1946, without any reservation as to interest
or any other further claim by the petitioners against the Government.

In the second place, even if the premise were correct, the
conclusion sought to be drawn would not necessarily be so. Even if we should by
analogy consider the Government’s taking possession of the land in 1940 as
equivalent to taking possession of it through a condemnation proceeding, and the
agreement between the parties for the payment of P60,900 as equivalent to a
judgment in an expropriation proceeding, it would not follow that the Government
is liable to pay interest on said sum. It would be liable to pay interest only
if the judgment expressly so provided. No such provision was made in the
agreement.

We hold that the petitioners are estopped from claiming
interest by their unqualified and unconditional acceptance of the settlement of
their claim as embodied in the Right-of-Way Agreement of December 31, 1946.

The decision of the Auditor General is affirmed, with
costs.

Moran, C.J., Paras, Feria, Bengzon, Padilla, Tuason,
Montemayor, and Reyes, JJ., concur.