BACOLOD CITY -- A regional trial court in Bacolod has sentenced two women to 11 years in prison for mortgaging a property using fake ownership papers.

Bacolod RTC Judge Anita Chua ordered the arrest of an employee of the Negros Occidental Register of Deeds for her involvement in the scam.

Chua on Friday meted the prison term on Wilma Palacios Edrosolano and Ruth Pula after they were found guilty of duping the complainant, Christina Erojo.

The court also ordered the two to jointly pay Erojo the amount of P80,000 as actual damages, the exact amount they obtained from Erojo when they pawned to her a property that they did not own.

Chua also issued an alias warrant of arrest against Gracelda Locsin, a cash clerk I of the Register of Deeds of the province of Negros Occidental, who facilitated the scam.

Court records showed that Locsin met Erojo sometime in September 2001 when the latter was transferring the title of a parcel of land she bought in Valladolid, Negros Occidental.

Locsin then introduced Erojo to Edrosolano, saying the latter wanted to mortgage her property for P80,000.

Locsin presented to Erojo a falsified owner's duplicate certificate of TCT No. T-236049 covering Lot 321-C in Bacolod City registered in the name of Leonor Ferrer with a fake certified copy of the original title from the Office of the Bacolod City Register of Deeds, court records said.

Locsin introduced Edrosolano as Leonor Ferrer and Pula as Josefina Pandan to Erojo, the court documents said.

In a real estate mortgage document that was prepared to facilitate the loan, Edrosolano signed the document as owner-mortgager Leonor Ferrer while Pula signed as witness, using Pandan as her name.

When Edrosolano failed to pay the loan after several months, Erojo discovered that someone else owned the land title that was given to her.

Pula and Edrosolano pleaded not guilty when arraigned.

Pula jumped bail while Edrosolano failed to present any evidence in her defense, the court said.

Locsin has remained at large.