Of land developers as complaints pile up
The Baguio City Council issued a warning to the general public to be more cautious in buying properties from real estate or land developers.
The warning came after the city council probed into the complaint of Saint Thomas Estates Homeowners Association, Inc. against Prime Peak Properties Ltd., Inc.
According to the letter of the association addressed to the city council, Prime Peak Properties had failed to execute Deeds of Sale in favor of their members who had paid in full the agreed-upon purchase prices and had failed to issue their individual titles.
The association claimed that their requests for the release of their Deeds of Sale and individual titles had been “ignored” by Lorenzo Ma. DG Aguilar, owner of Prime Peak Properties.
The city council had summoned the involved parties and the concerned offices and agencies to its regular session last october 3 to discuss the matter.
Aguilar failed to attend the forum “due to medical reasons.”
During the forum, Froilan Calera, interim president of the homeowners association, claimed that some of these properties had been sold twice or even three times by the company.
Sirwyn Mortera, OIC division head of the Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development- Cordillera Administrative Region (DHSUD- CAR), disclosed that individual titles of the buyers had already been issued but had not been released to the buyers.
Atty. Ligaya Haban, chief regional adjudicator of Human Settlements Adjudication Commission (HSAC)- CAR, said their office had already issued a writ of execution addressed to Prime Peak Properties for the release of the homeowners’ individual titles.
Haban advised the homeowners to file a formal case against the company before her office or they may also seek conciliation proceedings before the DHSUD- CAR where the conflict is resolved among the involved parties.
In case of non-compliance by the land developer on the writ of execution, Haban said the HSAC- CAR may direct the Registry of Deeds to cancel the title issued in the name of the land developer and to issue titles in the name of the complainants. She mentioned that, HSAC- CAR, being a quasi-judicial body and a “co-equal” to the Regional Trial Court (RTC), has the authority to order the cancellation of titles.
However, Atty. John Carlo Mabutas, deputy of the Registry of Deeds- Baguio, asserted that the Registration Property Decree categorically states that the order for the cancellation of titles must solely come from the Court of First Instance or the RTC.
Mabutas also cited a case (Vicenta Canterparte vs CRC Realty) where the court ruled that the HSAC, formerly called the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB), has “no jurisdiction over the issue of ownership, possession or interest” in the disputed property because Section 19 of Batas Pambansa (BP) Blg. 129 otherwise known as the Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1980, the RTCs shall “exercise exclusive original jurisdiction in all civil actions which involve the title to, or possession of, real property, or any interest therein.”
Mortera informed the city council that their office had already issued a notice of violation and a cease and desist order to Prime Peak Property to stop the company from further selling lands.
A list of unregistered developers is published on the website of the DHSUD-CAR to warn the public, Mortera noted.
Mortera and Haban revealed that, aside from St. Thomas Estates Subdivision, Prime Peak Properties, had implemented other projects. These were La Isabelle Development Corporation, Saint Thomas Village, Verdant Hills, and Della Prime.
Based on records, only the St. Thomas Estates Project [Sic] had been issued a development permit in 2006 through a city council resolution (Resolution 322-2006) as per the recommendation of the city council’s Committee on Lands and Housing.
Engr. Elias Aoanan of the City Planning and Development Office, in an interview, confirmed the non-existence of a development permit for each of these four real properties.
The city council tasked the Registry of Deeds to submit copies of documents related to the complaint of the homeowners association for the council’s Committee on Laws, Human Rights, and Justice to study for any possible legislative action. **Jordan G. Habbiling
