THE INEPTNESS OF the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to “properly secure” over 1,000 hectares of lands seized from the dictator’s cronies could result in losses worth P3 billion for the state.
The Commission on Audit (COA) particularly identified problematic sequestration covering 296 real estate assets covering 1,107.2 hectares valued at P3.11 billion.
According to the state auditors, seized properties remain unregistered to the government, not covered by a proper title, or bore no annotation of lis pendens.
A notice of pendens is a legal warning to potential buyers that a property is tied up in litigation or being claimed by the State.
SECRETLY SOLD
COA has discoverèd that 11 properties from the same list with a combined land area of 17.048 hectares worth P641.537 million have been sold, even though these were still locked cases pending before various courts.
State auditors explained that one of the principal mandates of the PCGG is the sequestration and management of assets deemed part of the ill-gotten wealth of members of the Marcos family and their cronies.
“By not registering and annotating lis pendens on the titles, the PCGG allows the sale or transfer of properties without informing the public about the ongoing legal disputes involving the properties. These resulted in the same or transfer of at least 11 parcels of land amounting to 641.537 million,” auditors pointed out.
Tracking by the audit team revealed that the secret sale of the supposedly sequestered properties has been going on for decades, with the earliest one recorded in May 1990 and the most recent one on June 14, 2018.
AUDITORS’ LIST
Based on a list drawn by the state auditors, the untitled, unregistered or unannotated sequestered properties consist of a 113-hectare fishpond valued at P305.27 million; a 3.41-hectare beachfront property with resthouses and no assigned value; and 267 parcels of land with a combined area of 990.69 hectares worth P2.804 billion.
Efforts by the audit team to trace the titles to the sequestered properties turned up more problems.
There were 202 land titles covering 212,116 square meters of land assessed at P352.94 million that were already foreclosed by the Los Baños Rural Bank, dating back to January 6, 1987, beating the filing of government lawsuits for recovery by just a few months. This was disclosed only on August 15, 2024, Malaya reported.
BUNGLED SEIZURES
There were also 27 parcels of land corresponding to 169,264 sq. m. with an estimated value of 708.64 million that were not even included in the monitoring list. Three were found to have already been disposed of by sale.
Six land titles with notices of lis pendens in 2016 and 2017 and requests for registration and annotation to various registry of deeds were issued new titles.
However, in at least two instances, the new titles no longer reflected the lis pendens notice on the dorsal portion. One of these was sold in 2000 without the required annotation.
Follow up with the Land Registration Authority regarding unsubmitted titles piled up more troubles for the PCGG, as some could no longer be located on the LRA’s database, making tracing them doubly difficult.
“Out of the 470 titles submitted by the PCGG, 124 or 26 percent were either not found in the selected RD (registry of deeds) in the LRA’s database or the indicated owner/s did not match or the title itself never existed,” the audit team said.
WHAT TO DO
The COA recommended that the PCGG facilitate the annotation of lis pendens on the existing titles, clean up and update its database regarding the status of all sequestered properties and file charges against persons or parties behind the secret disposal by sale of the sequestered land.