(Originally published in the Feb. 26 to March 3, 2012 issue of the Baguio Chronicle ---
a weekly newspaper based in Baguio City, Philippines ---
by Sly L. Quintos, Associate Editor.)
A CARTOGRAPHER of the Department of Natural Resources and Natural Resources (DENR) Cordillera Regional Office is asking the Register of Deeds of Baguio “to hold in abeyance the registration of any transfer in the name of SM Corporation involving the parcel of land occupied by SM City Baguio or any portion covered by OCT No. 1”.
In a letter to Register of Deeds’ Atty. Guerrero Felipe dated January 9, 2012, Dominador Bocalen said he was prompted to write because “allowing the registration would be legalizing what is illegal and unjust”.
“There is no approved plan covering the 29-hectare property allegedly covered by OCT No. 1 and the SM site is not titled to or owned by anyone, including the Insular Government of the Philippines,” he contended.
“The portion whereon SM City Baguio now stands is very controversial and is now involved in a case filed against myself and two others,” he said.
Bocalen narrated that indeed, 16 individuals have filed their respective Townsite Sales Applications (TSA) with A.O. 504 Committee of the DENR-CAR covering portions of the SM site.
“There being no title in the name of SM at that time and no titled owner of the parcel of land, eight applications were cleared for further processing,” he said. “Eventually, all 16 TSAs covering portions of the SM site have either been withdrawn or denied.”
And for “clearing” the eight TSAs, Bocalen and his two other co-employees were administratively charged and who have served their respective 90-day suspensions from September 1 to November 30, 2011.
Eventually, “the land was reportedly sold by DENR to SM Corporation but no deed of transfer has been executed by the government since 2006”, Bocalen revealed in his letter to the Register of Deeds.
“Suddenly and mysteriously, the DENR produced OCT No. 1 allegedly issued to the Philippine Insular Government in 1910 and the deed of sale to SM Corporation of the parcel of land was executed in September 2011 while we were suspended,” Bocalen added. “This questionable title of a 29-hectare parcel of prime land covers Burnham Park, Athletic Bowl, University of the Cordilleras, COMELEC, (the Baguio) Convention Center, Baden Powell site, BPI (Bank of Phil. Islands) and PILTEL sites, University of the Philippines Baguio Campus and SM City.”
“We suffered a lot, we were mentally-tortured, ridiculed, and humiliated because we were presented as corrupt, inept, and inefficient government workers with the case filed against us,” Bocalen said in his emotionally-charged letter.
He was referring to a 2008 investigation made by a fact-finding committee created under Special Order No. 59, Series 07 2007 to determine if the Townsite Sales Applications of Michelle Padron, Henry Padron, Sherlyne Ibay, Marie Grace Ibay, Florence Ibay, Alex Ibay, Crescencio Ducusin, and Cecile Ducusin are outside or inside the road-right-of-way of Harrison Road, OCT1 and that sold to SM Investments.
The investigation also sought to determine who were responsible for the pre-screening clearance and acceptance of Townsite Sales Applications within the OCT 1 (SM area) and the road-right-of-way (Harrison Road).
In the end, the committee recommended the cancellation of the clearance issued to Michelle Padron, Henry Padron, Sherlyne Ibay, Marie Grace Ibay, Florence Ibay, Alex Ibay, Crescencio Ducusin, and Cecile Ducusin.
The committee also recommended that formal charges be filed against Bucalen (and his two other co-employees) for gross misconduct.
On June 29, 2009, the Baguio City Council adopted the recommendations of a fact-finding committee which it also constituted to investigate the issue.
The City Council agreed to request the then DENR Secretary “to update the city government as regards City Council Resolution No. 164, Series of 2007, particularly the portion which asked the DENR Secretary (a) to hold in abeyance any action on the Deed of Conveyance or Deed of Sale executd by DENR-CAR in favor of SM Investments Corp. covering those parcels of land, particularly Lot X-1, Lot Y-2 and those lots in front of the University of the Cordilleras and the COMELEC along Gov. Pack Road; (b) to initiate the prevention of the completion of any construction by SM Investments Corp. thereat should the findings of the fact-finding committee warrant that some action be taken thereon such as the rescission of the contract; and, (c) to hold in abeyance the approval or issuance of any title thereto, or in the vent that a title is issued, to revoke the same".
And to remedy the muddled situation, the city council also adopted the following recommendations of the fact-finding committee: for the DENR-CAR to identify and mark on the ground all corners of OCT No. 1 as per the submitted verified survey; to urge the DENR-CAR to cause the approval of the Verification Survey in accordance to the Manual for Land Surveys in the Philippines and specifically indicating the correct Tie Line of the lot covered by OCT No. 1; to request the DENR-CAR to cancel TSI 1-2-000767, containing an area of 352 square meters in the name of Delia C. Guerrero (now Mary Tan) and restore it to its original use for road purposes, including the clearing of the remaining portion of that portion of OCT No. 1 and open it for traffic; approval of a resolution urging Pres. G. Arroyo, through the DENR, for the issuance of an amendatory proclamation designating Lots X-1 and Y-2 as Technology Information Center under the administration of the city government of Baguio; and approval of the dproposed Resolution No. PR 097-08 of the Fact-Finding Committee “moving for the inventory of the unoccupied and/or undisposed portions of that parcel of land covered by OCT No. 1 in the name of the Insular Government of the Philippines and the turning over of the same to the city government of Baguio for public purposes”, including that area covered by SWO-41583, known as the BIBAK Dorm as per Resolution No. 009, Series of 2009.
Bocalen however lamented that nothing came out of the resolution of the city council regarding the said anomaly despite their findings.
On January 10 last year, Bocalen filed a Motion to Dismiss the charges thrown at him by Baguilat “for failure to prosecute within the reasonable time” and for violation of his right to a speedy disposition of the case.
On September 5, 2011, Bocalen lodged an “answer” praying that after a formal investigation, an order or resolution be issued dismissing the administrative case filed against him for Gross Misconduct amounting to Non-Feasance / Misfeasance “for lack of factual and legal basis and lack of merit”.
But it was not until July 25 last year --- three-and-a-half years later --- that DENR Regional Executive Director Clarence Baguilat formally charged Bocalen (and his two other co-employees) for ‘gross misconduct amounting to non-feasance’ for intentionally withholding or twisting information resulting to the A.O. 504 Clearance Committee being misled to issue clearance to eight Townsite Sales Applications of Michelle Padron, Henry Padron, Sherlyne Ibay, Marie Grace Ibay, Florence Ibay, Alex Ibay, Crescencio Ducusin, and Cecile Ducusin.
Such “nonfeasance / misfeasance specifically consists in your misrepresenting that the areas covered by the eight applications are outside of Lot 4 (Resort Hotel) Proclamation 205 and within Lot X, IR 261 and withholding the TRUE information that Lot X, IR 261 has been previously awarded to SM Investment Corporation as early as 1992”, Baguilat contended in his formal charge against Bocalen and his two other co-employees.
“The facts reveal that I did my job in accordance with established procedures and the government has nothing to sell to SM Corporation because the property is not titled in the name of the government,” Bocalen bravely stood his ground in his letter to the Register of Deeds.
“The presentation of OCT No. 1 is to cover-up an anomalous transaction facilitated by scheming and corrupt government officials and employees,” he added.*
This is just an example of how the government people work and to think that this is just one of the areas under the DENR, so big a task to be assigned to only one department. A case of "kung sinong mahuli siyang taya"- which usually falls on the fall guys, and the people with sticky hands are nowhere to be found!!!
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