Waging war vs fake titles

Erick San Juan

THE Philippine justice system is being used, wittingly or unwittingly, by landgrabbers and syndicates to validate fake land titles in the country.

This was exposed by activist and book author Daniel Frianeza during his recent book launch at the Balitaan sa Hotel Rembrandt. The book is called “The Torrens System: A Gateway for the Flooding of Fake Land Titles.”

The book of Frianeza outlined how the the ignorance of the law and the legal aspects surrounding the Torrens international land title registration system has led to the proliferation of thousands even millions of fake titles nationwide.

The existence of fake land titles was exposed according to Frianeza in 1964, during the term of President Diosdado Macapagal, Registration Commissioner Antonio Noblejas and National Bureau of Investigation Director Jolly Bugarin.

It was in those time the issuance of Original Certificate of Titles (OCTs) ranging from 01 to 100,000 of no probative origin was exposed.

At present, Frianeza said these fake OCTs have been replicated into millions of Transfer of Certificate of Titles (TCTs) nationwide.

The Torrens System is a “system for the registration of titles to lands, wherein the official land certificate will always show the state of the title and the person in whom it is vested.

Frianeza explained to the mediamen that covered the forum the system was first established by Sir Robert R. Torrens when he was still a commissioner of customs in South Australia and today the system is widely used internationally in the US, Europe and Asia, including the Philippines.

The book, 110 pages in all, provides a comprehensive story of land ownership in the country and several historical notes were cited such as titles and other pieces of evidence of ownership granted by King Philip II of Spain when the country was still under Spanish colonization.

The Torrens system was implemented in the country on Feb. 1, 1903, which only required the registration of a titled property that made it vulnerable to land grabbing.

Frianeza said throughout history, land grabbers and syndicates were able to secure Certificates of Title even without a title or ownership of the land just like the controversial Piedad Estate named in the Republic of the Philippines purportedly registered on March 12, 1912 which did not happen.

Another is the Cadastral Act 2259, imposed on Feb. 11, 1913, which is another secret land confiscation by the government in conjunction with the 1935 Constitution, vesting the Spanish King’s ownership of the whole archipelago in favor of the State.

The justice system was also blamed by the book author in the proliferation of fake property titles wherein the presiding judge always failed to consider the substantial facts or documentary evidence of he plaintiff in making his decision as per Art. 8, Sec. 14 of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, lawyer Virgilio Pablico, chief of the legal department of Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), disclosed that two huge malls in Quezon City are squatters in the land where the malls have been built.

Pablico was one of the 15 member Board of Inquiry (BOI) led by its chairman Police Director Benjamin Magalong, who were given the Medalya ng Pambihirang Paglilingkod (PNP Special Service Medal) for their exceptionally meritorious and invaluable service rendered in the BOI’s six-week long probe into the now-controversial “Oplan Exodus” in Mamasapano, Maguindanao where 44 elite members of Special Action Force were killed.

Pablico told reporters that his findings that the two malls owned by mall magnates were based on the documents he obtained from pertinent government agencies including the court that declared the titles for the lands were faked by a certain Tuason.

This was according to the court when Pablico made his investigation or probe on the merits of the activities being done by Frianeza about the proliferation of land titles.

“Mr. Frianeza wrote me a letter asking my help about these fake land titles so what I did is tell my superior General Magalong who gave his permission,” Pablico said.

Being a lawyer, Pablico said he based his investigation on the veracity of the documents he has encountered or gathered double checking it with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the courts.

It was during his own investigation that he found out that the malls are squatters in the land they are occupying since they did not pay any centavo because the supposed owner is keeping a fake land title.