MEMBERS of the Cagayan de Oro City Council’s minority bloc vowed to resign if City Hall can produce a single title of its controversial P1-per-lot program.

While the challenge is nothing new, opposition councilors say they will sign this time a notarized manifesto complete with witnesses to prove they mean business.

The manifesto, according to Councilor Teodulfo Lao, will contain only one condition: “That the administration can produce a deed of sale evidencing the P1 purchase by any beneficiary of the “piso-piso” program."

Councilor Lao said the three-member minority group will sign the document before the month ends.

To make the challenge “reasonable,” Councilor Roger Abaday said they will give Cagayan de Oro Mayor Constantino Jaraula and his allies in the administration-dominated City Council a certain number of days to have the titles for the “piso-piso” lots processed.

“We’ll give them deadline to have the land titles ready and distribute these to the beneficiaries. If they can show us even a single document stating the P1 sale of any lot under “piso-piso,” then we will honor our word and resign immediately,” Councilor Abaday said.

Councilor Zaldy Ocon had offered the same challenge in 2005 when he was still the lone opposition voice in the City Council.

Twelve years after the program started, Councilor Ocon said it was time for City Hall to “tell the truth whether the beneficiaries can be given land titles or not.”

“Twelve years is already enough. Let us face the beneficiaries squarely and tell them in the face whether they can own the lots or if they will remain mere occupants forever,” said Ocon.

Councilor Ramon Tabor, the majority floor leader, dismissed the minority bloc's challenge.

“Why do we need to issue land titles when the very presence of the families in their own land is the proof that they own it. Do we need scrap of papers to prove that?” Councilor Tabor told this paper in a phone interview.

The certificate of ownership distributed to beneficiaries was enough assurance that “piso-piso” settlers can’t be uprooted from their lots, said Tabor.

When asked whether the beneficiaries will ultimately be given land titles, the councilor was noncommittal, saying this would “take a little time.”

The “Piso-piso” Land Resettlement program started in 1998 during the administration of Mayor Vicente Emano, who is now a vice mayor.

Under the program, parcels of land bought by the local government through bank loans are sold to landless families at a negligible P1.

Beneficiaries, who are barred from selling their lots, were promised issuance of Transfer Certificate of Titles by then Mayor Emano.

State auditors, however, had earlier found the program disadvantageous.

Because the lots are sold way below their market value, the Commission on Audit (COA) said this effectively deprived the city of funds to buy other lands for other beneficiaries.

COA also said the program was discriminatory, as the beneficiaries of previous land resettlement programs were charged according to market value.

Evangeline Ngayan, team leader of COA unit that audited the “piso-piso” program in 2004, said she had not encountered a situation in her 24 years of auditing career in which lots are sold at P1.

Emano had earlier defended the delayed distribution of land titles to “piso-piso” beneficiaries, saying the titling process could take a little longer than usual considering the thousands of settlers registered under the program.

Lao assailed this, saying City Hall need not bother itself with the titling process as this can be done by the settlers themselves.

“What they need to do is to issue a deed of sale. That’s all,” said Lao.

The councilor added: “But why can’t they issue a deed of sale with the P1 amount on it? Is it because the program reeks of anomalies in the first place?” (DVA)