Flyer spills another Quezon City land scam

Aquino Bañares, who retired from the Camp Aguinaldo Golf Club last year, still remembers that day in 2001 when a real estate agent at a shopping mall handed him a flyer enticing him to buy a condominium unit in a soon-to-be developed property in Quezon City.

When Bañares glanced at the flyer, he noticed that the property being sold included Sabater Subdivision where he had been living for over a decade.

This was what got him digging through the records and getting in touch with fellow lot owners to fight for what they believe is theirs, he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

This was the start of another land dispute stemming from a title reconstituted from property records destroyed in a 1988 fire that gutted Quezon City Hall.

Lot owners in the 3.9-hectare Sabater Subdivision in Diliman, including the wife of former University of the Philippines president Francisco “Dodong” Nemenzo, on Wednesday filed a graft complaint in the Office of the Ombudsman against officials of a city government body that they said favored their adversary in a land case.

The lot owners in the mostly undeveloped Sabater Subdivision have a pending court case against Amparo Cañoza, who allegedly bought the land from Yu Chi Hua for P2 million and had a reconstituted title to the property.

But despite this, the Local Interagency Committee (LIAC) issued a report dated March 20 that essentially recognized Cañoza as the owner of Sabater Subdivision, they said.

Another prime Quezon City property made headlines the past weeks after it became the target of Wilfredo Torres, an alleged leader of a land-grabbing syndicate.

Torres has claimed ownership of parcels of land totaling 24 hectares along or near Visayas Avenue, claiming the papers had been lost in the Quezon City Hall fire. A judge had issued Torres a writ of possession on the property, which covers subdivisions, a school and a church, through the reconstitution of land titles.

Madamba et al.

Named respondents in the complaint of the Sabater lot owners were LIAC members Edgardo Madamba, assistant chief of the Quezon City Urban Poor Affairs office; Arlo Altiche of the Commission on Human Rights; and Rose Makimkim and Eleazar Mabalay of the Presidential Commission on Urban Poor.

Aside from Bañares, the complaint was filed by Ana Maria “Princess” Nemenzo, Luisa Sabater, Cecilia Sabater, Purita Cabochan, Luis Lim, Louela Garalde, Meynardo Garalde, Rolando Garalde, Wilfredo Dulay, Victor Garalde, Elizabeth Mendoza, Inocencia Bacani, Rogelio Pasicolan, Lutgarda Castromero and Diana Emmert.

Undeveloped

Many of the complainants are not residing in the subdivision, since it is undeveloped and lacks water and electricity connections. Only Bañares has built a home in the area.

Many of the lot owners said their families had owned the properties since the 1950s, and these have even been handed down to younger generations.

Near UP, Ateneo

Though undeveloped, Sabater Subdivision could be considered prime property because of its location, which is near posh subdivisions and the University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University.

In their complaint, the Sabater Subdivision owners lamented the issuance of the LIAC report, which they said Cañoza used as basis to enter the property with police and private security.

Civil case

The LIAC report had cited court rulings pointing to Cañoza as the owner and approved her request to protect her property, which has been beset by informal settlers.

But the complainants said that the civil case to nullify Cañoza’s title, filed by Luisa Sabater in the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, is still ongoing.

The LIAC members had been told of this, the complainants said. They also alleged that Madamba, being from the Quezon City government, was presumably aware that there was double or overlapping titling of the land stemming from the court order to issue a tax declaration in favor of Yu Chi Hua. They also provided the LIAC with proof of their ownership claim.

Double titling

“Notwithstanding the fact that ownership of the property is being disputed in a court of law…, the LIAC issued its report on 20 March 2011 which arrogated upon itself the powers of the judiciary when it declared outright that Cañoza’s claim to the property is valid and legitimate,” the complainants said.

The complainants contended that the Supreme Court decision that the LIAC cited made no reference to the rightful ownership of the property, and that its recitation of facts had been superseded by the declaration of the Quezon City assessor’s office that there was a double titling of the land.

They further said that the secretary to the mayor, Tadeo Palma, had told them that Madamba had no authority to do what he did, and filed a formal declaration saying as much.

“The LIAC report was the product of a conspiracy aimed at favoring one part to a dispute that is still sub judice and that this was done with malicious premeditation,” the complainants added.

The latest developments have caused them distress, the complainants further said.

Passed down by father

Ana Maria Nemenzo also lamented that court battles against Cañoza have been a long struggle, and the wheels of justice turn slowly.

Dodong, Nemenzo’s husband, accompanied her to the filing of the complaint Wednesday and gave her support. He said the property meant a lot to his wife since it was passed down to her by her father.

Luisa Sabater said she had once considered building a retirement home on the Quezon City lot, but changed her plans because of the presence of informal settlers there. But now, they are not her only problem, what with her legal battle over the land title.

Luis Lim said the Quezon City government should not have allowed such things to happen. “It’s a failure of management,” he said.