Group backs GenSan land scam probe

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines—Findings of the Land Registration Authority (LRA) that titles, which are in possession of some individuals, were fake were welcomed by a group fighting the proliferation of spurious land documents here.

Last month, an urban poor group asked the Senate to conduct an investigation into what it labeled as “monumental land scam” which led to the release by the Department of Public Works and Highways of some P135 million in partial road-right-of-way compensation in 2005.

Tito Torribiano, chair of the Coalition for Reform Against Fake Titles (Craft) Movement, said at least 5,000 fake titles were proliferating in the city.

During a hearing by the Senate committee on justice and human rights, chaired by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III last week, the LRA affirmed that many titles possessed by individuals here are spurious.

Among the titles were those belonging to a Romeo Confesor for a 747-hectare of land covered by an Integrated Forest Management Agreement (Ifma) with Alsons Development and Investment Corp. (Aldevinco).

It was pointed out at the Senate hearing that as early as 1956, the technical description of the Confesor title already showed the land boundaries, which included the present General Santos airport.

Pimentel said this was impossible because the master plan for the airport was drawn only in 1993.

As indicated by records in the Civil Registrar of General Santos, Confesor was 15 years old in 1956 and could not have predicted that an airport would be built next to his supposed property 37 years later.

Other anomalous practices denounced during the Senate hearing were the non-use of prescribed judicial forms and the questionable annotations done by officials on the Confessor documents. With a report from Aquiles Z. Zonio, Inquirer Mindanao