DENR warns of land scam pulled by Antipolo group

Environment Secretary Ramon Paje on Saturday warned the public against fraudulent schemes involving the sale of agricultural or forest lands that are inalienable or not suitable for private ownership.

The official raised the alarm after authorities discovered a massive scam involving an Antipolo City-based group selling lands located within the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape (UMRBPL).

The 26,226-hectare land formerly known as the Marikina Watershed Reservation has been declared a protected area by virtue of Proclamation No. 296 signed by President Aquino in 2011, he said.

“Any part of a proclaimed protected area is classified as public forest land and could not be in any manner disposed of, much less sold as a titled property,” Paje said in a statement.

The UMRBPL covers the upper reaches of the Marikina watershed in the province of Rizal, straddling Antipolo City and the towns of Baras, Rodriguez, San Mateo and Tanay.

The new land scam first drew public attention after an investigative TV series exposed the operations of Vanguard for Resourcefulness and Self-Reliance Livelihood and Housing Foundation Inc., which was reportedly involved in the selling of lands within the UMRBPL.

In an entrapment operation on Feb. 20 at the group’s office in Antipolo, VRS Foundation officer Juanito Sta. Maria was arrested after receiving marked money from a DENR asset who posed as a buyer of a property being sold by the foundation.

The operation was carried out by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police and the DENR led by Assistant Secretary for Internal Audit and Anti-Corruption Daniel Nicer.

Further investigation revealed that VRS Foundation was also engaged in buying Certificates of Stewardship Contracts (CSCs) from upland farmers taking part in DENR’s Integrated Social Forestry Program (ISFP) and would use these CSCs to resell plots of lands in the guise of “transfer of rights.”

Initiated in the 1980s, ISFP grants a 25-year stewardship contract to qualified forest occupants, allowing them to settle and till the upland areas. In return, they agree to protect and reforest these lands.

But Paje said that under the ISFP regulations CSCs cannot be assigned or transferred without permission from the DENR secretary. “Rights to ISF areas cannot be transferred, sold or even titled; more so if they are inside protected areas,” he said.