Court stops sale of land with fake mother title

DAVAO CITY—The Register of Deeds here was told to stop the processing, including registering the sale, of a 707-hectare government land that was bought using titles earlier declared by the Land Registration Authority (LRA) as originating from a spurious mother title.

In a temporary restraining order (TRO) issued on March 22, Judge Panambulan Mimbisa, of the Regional Trial Court Branch 37, said the order will “allow a full ventilation of the conflicting claims of ownership” over the government-owned land, which a businessman has been claiming for 13 years already based on several Original Certificates of the Title (OCT) that the LRA has declared fake in 2004.

Mimbisa issued the TRO based on a petition filed by Alsons Development and Investment Corp. (Aldevinco), which claims to have been exercising control over the area as early as 1964 by virtue of a pasture lease agreement with the government.

In 1992, Aldevinco said it had secured an Integrated Forest Management Agreement from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the land.

Mimbisa issued the TRO as the LRA, in an undated resolution, allowed transactions on the OCTs covering the land.

The undated LRA resolution would have allowed the businessman to have the questioned land registered in his name.

The businessman has been pressing officials to process the registration of the sale of the land but was initially met with rejection because of findings that the mother title of the land was a fake. Inquirer Mindanao