DENR warns public against 'Bogus' land titles

Publishing date: Friday, January 8, 2010 (1:42 PM)

"Beware of con men selling parcels of land with 'bogus' or fake documents," thus the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) warns the public anew against fraudulent selling of land titles.

This warning was issued in the wake of a decision issued by the Regional Trial Court of Muntinlupa City voiding the purchase of 1,740,551 square meters of land by Intercontinental Development Corporation (ICDC) which includes the Susana Heights Subdivision declaring it as "in bad faith" due to anomalies and irregularities found in the acquisition of a property covering three separate Transfer Certificates of Titles (TCTs).

ICDC asserted that the three TCTs were derived from the root title Original Certificate of Title (OCT). No record of the OCT can, however, be found at the Land Management Bureau (LMB).

ICDC has elevated the trial court decision to the Court of Appeals for review.

Land Administration and Management Project (LAMP2) Executive Director Allan V. Barcena cautions prospective land buyers to "observe extra caution in real property transactions" noting that even legitimate landowners lose their lands to land grabbers resulting in costly litigations, often running into millions of pesos, in long-winded court battles just to prove the legitimacy of their titles

In his decision, Judge Pedro M. Sabundayo, Jr. of Muntinlupa City RTC Branch 276 said that "there can be no valid title if it has no approved survey plan and technical descriptions in the LMB's records," adding that one of the distinguishing marks of the Torrens System is the absolute certainty of the identity of the registered land.

"Even real estate developers have now also fallen victim to the proliferation of anomalous, simulated, spurious and double land titles which made up most of land cases filed in court that still await resolution by the courts," Barcena said.

"The dismal state of the titling system in the country provides a fertile ground for fake titles syndicate to thrive. But we can arrest these activities of these unscrupulous people by dealing with legitimate agencies involved in land administration processes, Barcena said, adding that the public should be vigilant and exhaust all efforts to verify every land transactions that they make".

Seeing the overlapping of functions of different government agencies in land titling the DENR under the Lamp Administration and Management Project (LAMP2) - now on its second phase, is currently pursuing reforms for a transparent, efficient and responsive process in land administration and to eliminate confusion and delays as well as opportunities for corruption.

The Land Administration and Reform Act or LARA Bill is one of the advocacies being supported by LAMP2 as well as building human resource capacity and institutional strengthening in support of the future enactment of policy and legislative reforms.

The LARA Bill aims to reform existing laws and integrating government agencies involved with land administration thus streamlining the slow, tedious and complicated process of land registration.

Under the LARA Bill the integration of key land administration agencies like the Land Registration Authority (LRA), Registry of Deeds (RoD), National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA), and the Land Management Bureau (LMB) into a single entity called the Land Administration Authority (LAA) is being pushed.

According to Barcena, "the advantages and rewards from having an LAA will provide a system to eliminate duplicate and fake titles, introduce a better records management by coming up with one certificate of title and one register of titles".

"It will also introduce lower land transaction costs and uniform valuation standards, promotes security of tenure, and hasten public and investor confidence in the integrity of land titles and widened tax base for the government", he added.

"Pursuing these land administration reforms for its approval in both the Senate and the lower House will not only correct structural and institutional defects but it will also fast track the issuance of titles thus improving efficiency, effectiveness and provide convenience in land transactions in the country", Barcena said. (lmm)