After 22 yrs, victims of Pinatubo get land titles

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Twenty two years after Mt. Pinatubo’s 1991 eruptions and lahar flows displaced them, 750 families in Pampanga province finally received the titles to their home lots in government-built resettlement areas.

In rites at Bren Z. Guaio Convention Center here on Wednesday, Vice President Jejomar Binay awarded the transfer certificates of title (TCT) to the heads of 750 settlers in Mawaque and Madapdap in Mabalacat City, Sta. Lucia in Magalang town and Bulaon in the City of San Fernando.

The sites, hosting evacuees from Bacolor, Minalin and Mabalacat, have schools, police stations, flea markets, clinics and day-care centers. Binay, who chairs public agencies involved in housing programs, said the National Housing Authority (NHA), which assumed the task of the defunct Mt. Pinatubo Commission, is working double time to generate TCTs.

The distribution of 750 titles brought down to 33,121 the backlog for Mt. Pinatubo victims in Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales provinces, NHA records showed.

Ahead of Wednesday’s ceremony, Gov. Lilia Pineda said she had asked Binay to speed up the titling.

“If you have a land title to the lot you are living in, that gives you and your family a sense of security,” Pineda said.

Of the total 48,845 lots and houses in 16 resettlements in the three provinces, the NHA handed 11,974 titles during the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Arroyo, now a representative of Pampanga, gave the titles at no cost after Congress backed her order canceling a usufruct scheme. The victims fought hard against this scheme because it required them to pay without owning the houses and lots.

The administration of President Benigno Aquino III, through Binay, has distributed almost 4,000 titles since 2011, said Felicisimo Lazarte Jr., NHA manager for northern and Central Luzon.

Lazarte said the generation of TCTs had been delayed by the lack of survey, delay in the turnover of deeds of donation or sale from private individuals, and validation of original awardees.

Many have sold or leased their units, and have returned to their original villages.

The land titles of Pandacaqui and Pio resettlements in Pampanga remained in the name of donors.

Sites used as resettlements by virtue of presidential proclamations have yet to be titled by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources or to be classified as private lands. Such are the cases of resettlements in Floridablanca towen in Pampanga, Balaybay in Castillejos town in Zambales, and Dapdap in Bamban town and O’Donnel in Capas town, both in Tarlac. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon