This is a re-posted opinion piece.
Over the past few years, the reliability of our land registration system had become one of those things we have learned not to take for granted. But it seems to be getting worse if recent news events are any indication. Our system of land registration appears to be failing. And this is serious enough to affect not just the business climate but also peace and order.
We have all heard about this 24-hectare property in Quezon City that covers six developments: the Fernwood Garden (a wedding venue), part of the Claret Seminary, the St. Francis Church, and a Montessori (Visayas Ave) school. Using a court order, a claimant tried to forcibly take possession of this highly developed area. Threat to peace and order was such that the Montessori school had to suspend classes for days.
It didn’t help boost confidence in government when Vice President Jojo Binay said the claimant to that Quezon City property is “notorious” for alleged land-grabbing and organized squatting. A news story in the Inquirer reports that this person was serving a jail term for estafa, conditionally pardoned by Marcos, pardon revoked by Cory but was pardoned again by FVR. Apparently this person has political clout so that in spite of his colorful record, the most government has done recently is to put him in a watch list that apparently, no one in government really does anything much about.
Binay asked the Department of Justice (DoJ) to consider forming a task force that would focus on handling cases against squatting syndicates because, he said, “these cases require special attention considering the harm that these syndicates inflict on ordinary Filipinos who worked hard to buy their own home.” Hooray for Jojo Binay! I sure hope something starts happening now.
The problem reveals a truly dysfunctional government that is working at cross purposes. On TV Patrol, there was this top official of the Land Registration Commission who decried the fact that the judge who ruled in favor of this claimant in Binay’s watch list did not care to hear their testimony. They would have said the claim had no basis in their records. If that is true, that seems to me to be another black eye to our judicial system, so close to the black eye of a TRO preventing the Justice department from suing someone suspected of defrauding the Pag-Ibig fund. The Supreme Court should do something very quickly in the interest of keeping the people’s faith in the judiciary.
As if all that are not enough, there was this dramatic story about that prime property in Ortigas said to belong to Imelda Marcos and now claimed by Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson and the PCGG. I asked Chavit about that and he told me he is confident he has the right papers over the 17-hectare prime property on Meralco Avenue in Pasig.
The property where Metrowalk, among other businesses, now stands was supposed to have been surrendered by Unilab Founder, the late Jose Yao Campos to the PCGG after EDSA 1 in 1986. It was supposed to have been sold by the Ortigas family for a song to former First Lady Imelda Marcos under duress, reason enough for the Ortigas group to try to claim it back.
Chavit is now saying that the Campos firm that held the title to the property sold it to someone else who is now his partner. Chavit told me they have the original title and deed of sale that includes the signature of all the directors of the Campos firm.
So, I asked him if he is saying that Yao Campos in reality didn’t surrender anything to the PCGG. And Chavit said that appears to be the case because he said, the PCGG was unable to show a title when they met with Justice Secretary De Lima.
But when I asked PCGG Chairman Andy Bautista, he said the PCGG thru surrendered company Mid Pasig Land has possession of the judicially reconstituted title to the property. Does this mean there are two titles to the same property as in the case of the Quezon City Visayas Avenue case? One has to be a fake and until we find out which one, the integrity of our land titling system is suspect.
I remember the same problem plagued or maybe continues to plague the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman. Land grabbers keep on presenting titles to portions of the university campus. It is really just as well that they have now decided to use as much of the campus as they can for co-development with property companies like Ayala Land that put up a Techno Hub to help earn the funds needed to augment the meager resources the state university receives from the national budget.
Maybe Science Sec Montejo should include the Land Registration Office in his e-government program so that it would be easy for ordinary citizens to check if the title to the land they are buying is legit. Right now, as that Visayas Avenue property squabble and the Imelda Pasig property problem reveals, it seems no one really knows for sure if land titles being presented are worth the paper they are printed on. This is another business disincentive to investors.
Before we amend the Constitution to allow foreigners to buy land here, we should make sure that our land registration system is up to world standards. Imagine the land grabbing syndicates selling property to foreign investors on the basis of fake or otherwise questionable titles. It becomes an even more serious investment disincentive once foreign investors realize after a lot of expense that our land registration system is unreliable.
All branches of government must work together to make sure no one makes a mockery of our Land Registration system. The alternative, which seems to be the reality now, is just too horrible for all Filipinos to be allowed to persist.
Gov’t broadband
Titos Castro e-mailed his reaction to the government broadband story.
Enabling the “backbone” to be operational is indeed straight forward, getting access provisioned. The “last mile” is also easily doable for maybe up to 60% to 70% of the intended end points, the balance (far flung cities and towns) the planners will have to be creative in how they deploy the technology BUT the technology does exist.
The infrastructure part that everybody seems to key on is the easy part, what we should also be discussing are what applications will be run on this backbone. The “highway” is of little value if there are no real applications that are run on it that helps promote transparency, and ease of dealing with the various agencies mentioned.
For me the biggest challenge is to change the mindset of the people in government. With technology as an enabler for transparency and self service all the rackets that are in place are at risk. Many great ideas and efforts both private and public to use technology as an enabler has been way laid by this reluctance.
Social Pinoy
IBM’s social media expert Sandy Carter, a speaker in last week’s CEO Conference of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) revealed that according to comScore Media Metrix, January – April 2011, the Philippines is the #1 country of Facebook penetration with 93 percent participation from online users! We are also #9 in the world on the usage of Twitter!
Additionally, she also said the Philippines ranks highest in share of time spent on social networking properties across the world, making it the most social media-addicted market globally. Of the total time spent online in April 2011 by the Philippines’ online audience, 41.3 percent was spent on social networking sites.
I don’t know if that is good or bad but I know all this time spent on social networks can be used for good. We just have to figure out how.
Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. He is also on Twitter @boochanco
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By: Boo Chanco – Demand and Supply
Source: The Philippine Star, Sept. 19, 2011
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