Land exec voices regret over issuance of fake titles

K-VILLE TOWNHOMES

Register of Deeds Elberto Quilala said he regretted having complied with a court order to transfer the titles to 23.7 hectares of property in Quezon City to suspected land-grabber Wilfredo Torres despite the fact that the property had been subdivided and titles had been validly issued to multiple owners.

“I regret very much that I had to do it but there was no other choice,” he said.

He said he was prepared for the consequences of what he did, including getting death threats.

“I don’t want to wait but I have to be careful now,” Quilala said.

Manila Representative Amado Bagatsing, former vice chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, advised Quilala to be careful next time when dealing with any transfer certificate of title (TCT) covered by court orders.

Declared fake in 1976

Bagatsing pointed out that TCT No. 56809 in the name of Dominga Sumulong, Torres’ mother, had been declared fake and therefore, “nonexistent” by the Land Registration Authority (LRA) verification committee as early as 1976 when the latter first filed a petition in court  for reconstitution of the property in 1966.

The lawmaker said the LRA declared at the time that since the mother title was fake, all other titles emanating from it were therefore spurious.

Bagatsing also said that with the 60-day temporary restraining order issued by the Court of Appeals on the Torres titles, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) would now have enough time to argue for their cancellation in court.

Quilala said the LRA had sought the cancellation of all seven titles.

Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas Jr., chairman of the committee on justice in the House of Representatives which is investigating the issue, lamented the delay in the OSG’s action regarding the seven titles.

“The LRA filed the case only this month directly attacking the titles of Torres and used the 1976 verification committee report of the LRA as basis,” Tupas said.

“The solicitor general as the lawyer for the LRA should have filed that case way back in 1976 against the alleged spurious title which is the Sumulong title,” he added.

Police cautioned

For his part, Oriental Mindoro Representative Rey Umali asked the Philippine National Police to be cautious when implementing court orders on land disputes, especially when too many people would be affected.

Umali noted that more than 100 policemen, some from the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT), took part in the hasty execution of the writ of possession on properties of Montessori School and Wilcon Builders in Quezon City although they failed due to resistance from the owners.

“This is a clear case of bad governance and negligence. I saw on TV how they executed the writ of possession,” Umali said, shaking his head.