Friday, May 02, 2008
Gov't. sheds off Friar lots claim
By Karlon N. Rama
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) has finally put to rest the legal issue over more than 19.29 million square meters of land covered by the vast Bani-lad Friar Lands Estate.
In a document obtained by Sun.Star Cebu, Solicitor General Agnes Vst Devenadera said her office "no longer intends" to execute a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that lot 727, or a portion of the Banilad Friar Lands Estate contested by Cebu Country Club and the Alonso family, belongs to the Government.
The declaration is aimed to answer numerous inquiries that have deluged the OSG office regarding the legal effect of the Supreme Court decision.
On those inquiries, the OSG "has taken the stand that the Government was divested of its interest" over the Friar Lands, including lot 727.
Grounds
The OSG is convinced that the Supreme Court ruling "has ceased to have any practical effect," OSG said, on two grounds:
One, DENR Memorandum Order No. 16 dated Oct. 27, 2005, issued by then secretary Michael Defensor, cures the Government's incomplete disposition of the Friar Lands and ratifies all deeds of conveyance that do not bear the signature of the interior secretary; and
Two, Republic Act No. 9443, signed by President Arroyo on May 9, 2007, declares all existing transfer certificates of title and reconstituted certificates of title covering any part of the Friar Lands as valid titles and ratifies defects in said titles.
Both the DENR memorandum and the special law ratified the titles issued by the registers of deeds of Cebu Province and Cebu City in favor of the current property
owners.
The Supreme Court decision in the case of Alonso v. Cebu Country Club, which declared one parcel within the Friar Lands, known as lot 727 and covering 36 hectares, as
belonging to the national government, "became academic" with the recognition of the validity of the titles, the OSG said.
Fraud
The OSG qualifies, however, that it is not precluded from contesting certificates of title or reconstituted titles that were obtained by fraud.
Earlier, in his explanatory note to the bill that later became RA 9443, Rep. Raul del Mar of Cebu City north district said commercial and banking transactions and residential ownership involving any lot under the Friar Lands have become questionable with the "cloud of doubt" over the properties.
The OSG clarification adds light and force to the special law and DENR memorandum regarding the Friar Lands as OSG is "statutory counsel for the Republic in whose name all lands of the public domain belong."
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