Land titling agencies hit for ‘inaction’ on QC land row

Government officials involved in land titling were grilled during a congressional inquiry on Wednesday for their supposed inaction to a land dispute case involving 24 hectares of prime property in Quezon City. Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., House justice panel chair, castigated an official of the Land Registration Authority (LRA) for allowing Wilfredo Torres, a supposedly notorious land-grabber, to win ownership of the property. “To us, this incident makes a mockery of the land registration system of our country," he said during the inquiry on Wednesday morning. The investigation was held after homeowners from several middle-class subdivisions in Barangay Culiat and Visayas Avenue questioned a local court decision declaring Torres as the rightful owner of the parcel of land he supposedly inherited from his mother. The homeowners, who face the threat of eviction, claim that the land title in Torres’ possession is fake. They managed to get a 60-day temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Court of Appeals last September 9 to stop Torres from forcing them out of the area. Vice President Jejomar Binay, who also heads the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, earlier identified Torres as a known land-grabber who is on the government watch list of professional squatting syndicates. Forged title LRA chief Clemente Diaz Eulalio III said during the probe that his office already came out with a report that Torres’ title “was a forged one" way back in 1976, but did not ask for its cancellation before any court. “At that time, there was no occasion for the LRA to bring it out. We were not required to submit it in any forum," he said. He added that the report was only recommendatory in nature and that his agency had never initiated a case to cancel a spurious land title in the past. Tupas, however, said the LRA should have taken immediate action and prevented the case from dragging on for decades. “Public interest is involved," he told Eulalio. “You are talking about here of a prime property na mayroon na kayong report na fake ‘yung title. It is incumbent upon you to do something about this. You did not do anything." “If the LRA had taken action, we would have avoided this situation we have right now. You could have directly attacked the title and filed the cancellation. That is pursuant to your mandate," he added. Overlapping titles Lawyer Elbert Quilala of the Quezon City register of deeds, for his part, said he was aware that several homeowners already had the property's land titles even before the local court ruled in favor of Torres. He admitted that despite this, he still issued new titles to Torres after facing contempt charges. “I admit that I issued and I regret very much that it happened under my watch, but apparently, we were just complying with the court. We were trying to ward off [the decision of the court]," he said during the same inquiry. Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, justice committee vice-chairperson, said the register of deeds should not have been passive. He said the office should have informed the court during the hearings of the possibility of overlapping titles. “The register of deeds should have done its job by raising all these issues that this matter can no longer be executed properly because so many titles have already been issued conflicting with the same title in this case," he said. - KBK, GMA News