Gwen: Capitol team didn’t tell me property was under water

Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said she was “unaware” that part of the Balili properties in Naga bought for P98.9 million by the province four years ago was submerged until after the land was purchased.

This was her new line of defense in a motion for reconsideration and reinvestigation filed last July 25 with the Office of the Ombudsman in Manila, which charged her and seven others with graft for the land deal.

In the pleading, Garcia’s lawyers said the governor relied on the Appraisal Committee report presented by then Provincial Board Member Juan Bolo which did not contain the report of a Technical Working Group which indicated the areas under water.

Garcia said that when she signed the 2008 Memorandum of Agreement for the lot purchase, she relied on the report of the Appraisal Committee headed by the provincial assessor.

The assessor, three other Capitol department heads in the appraisal committee, Bolo and two Balili land owners were included in graft charges filed July 19 in the Sandiganbayan.

Garcia’s lawyers said the governor was not expected to personally examine every detail of the lot deal with her heavy work load, and has the right to presume the committee report was above board.

The governor also said she relied on titles of 10 parcels of land which show no sign of defects.

Garcia’s lawyers, who included her daughter-lawyer Esperanza Christina Codilla-Frasco, said it would be a great injustice to charge a high-ranking official on the ground that she failed to examine the purchase.

“Gov. Garcia certainly had the right to presume that the appraisal committee was in the regular performance of its duties when it produced the appraisal committee report, which, on its face, did not reveal that a portion of the Balili properties was submerged,” the pleading said.

“She (Garcia) could not be expected to examine in detail—much more, in person—every single facet of each transaction entered into by the local government.”

On the Ombudsman’s finding that 20 hectares were classified as timberland and 19.6 hectares were underwater, the lawyers said this was not important because “even the Supreme Court has affirmed as valid Torrens Certificates of Titles covering lands submerged underwater” in recent cases, including a 2007 decision on Silot Bay in Liloan town.

They said the Balili properties, including the submerged lots, “are alienable and disposable lands” whose titles the governor relied on as a buyer in good faith.

The pleading said the Ombudsman cannot question the validity of the transaction to buy the Balili properties by attacking the TCTs covering the submerged portion because the titles “remain valid and no action for reversion of titles has been filed by the Office of the Solicitor General”.

It said jurisdiction over the issue of whether the sale or land titles were valid “lies with the courts”.

It said the governor relied on the facts reported to her by her subordinates.

Garcia and her seven co-accused were charged before the Sandiganbayan and posted bail for the 2008 land purchase of 24.7 hectares of beachfront property in Naga City.

Defense lawyers said the original purchase of the Baili Properies “has resulted in several agreements that have been greatly advantageous to the Government.”

They cited the Memorandum of Agreement with KEPCO which paid the Province $500,000 with a pledge to pay an additional $1 per ton of coal fly ash deposited in the property.

The Province of Cebu is in the final stages of negotiations with APO Cement Cemex and preliminary talks with Taeheiyo Cement to execute similar MOAs, said the lawyers.

Garcia is facing charges of two counts of graft and one count of illegal use of public funds.

She is representd by the Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc and De Los Angeles law firm in Makati.

Those charged with one count of graft include Bolo, the four members of the Provincial Appraisal Committee and land owners Romeo and Amparo Balili.