Land ownership in question

Some personnel of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) assigned in Palawan are allegedly making a killing titling public lands and selling them to investors who cash in on the economic boom in the province and its capital, Puerto Princesa City.

Of course they are too wise to show their ownership of the lands, so these are titled in the names of their relatives or friends, if you are to believe the claim of some residents.

And if the properties are already titled to Palawan natives or poor people holding tax-declaration papers, these government men take advantage of their positions to land-grab the properties.

A total of 10 current and retired DENR personnel in Palawan are the subject of a complaint for alleged land-grabbing of 1,000 hectares from 500 owners, mostly indigenous people, in Sitio Sia, Barangay Buenavista, Puerto Princesa City.

The land in question was acquired by Felix and Natividad Abrea and their relatives and fellow Cuyunin (Palawan native) in 1968 through a tax declaration after the government declared it “alienable and disposable.”

The son of the Abrea couple, Quirino, came to this columnist to complain that the administrative case he filed against the DENR personnel was not being acted upon.

The DENR officials in Manila would do well to take a hard look at Abrea’s complaint because they might stumble on other reported land-grabbing cases attributed to their subordinates in Palawan and Puerto Princesa City.

A former Palawan environment and natural resources officer , who has been assigned to another province, has become wealthy because he reportedly engaged in the malpractice.

He goes back to Puerto Princesa every now and then to sell or look after his properties which have not yet been sold.

Of course, the properties are not in his name.

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A Makati City assistant prosecutor is reportedly being pressured by a retired city prosecutor to file in court a syndicated estafa case against past and present members of the board of directors of a big mining company.

The criminal case was filed by a member of a prominent clan which was once in the business of selling cars.

The case stemmed from a joint venture agreement between a member of the prominent clan and the mining firm for the development of four contiguous parcels of land in Makati City.

When the joint venture flopped in 1995, the prominent clan’s scion filed a estafa case against the company and its officers in Mandaluyong City.

The Mandaluyong City prosecutor, however, dismissed the estafa case.

The same case is in the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office.

Only time will tell whether or not the assistant prosecutor handling the syndicated estafa case succumbs to pressure.