How to steal a house in Dasmariñas Village

Sources informed us that Philippine Ambassador to Chile Consuelo “Baby” Puyat Reyes came home last year only to get the biggest shock of her life upon learning that her house in Dasmariñas Village had been sold without her knowledge by a man who goes by the name of Gregorio Co. While the Ambassador is dedicatedly working overseas to serve her country, it’s quite ironic that she may find herself having nothing to come home to when she finally retires.

Naturally, the obvious conclusion is that someone must have forged the signature of Ambassador Reyes. Co must have also been in cahoots with a corrupt employee of the Register of Deeds who must have given him a fake title – hence making it easy for them to “steal” the house of the Ambassador. Our sources disclosed that the property was sold for P25 million to Benny (nephew of our friend Max Soliven) and his wife Michelle Dayrit-Soliven (daughter of the late Mila Dayrit, founder of Miladay Jewels) – and one can just imagine how shocked the young couple was at finding that they, too, have been deceived by this unscrupulous individual who took advantage of the absence of Ambassador Baby and the inherent trusting nature of the young couple.

A big question now is, who is Gregorio Co? Is he part of a syndicate specializing in fake property titles operating all over the country? Just a few days ago, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) nabbed a mother and daughter team who tried to obtain a P5 million loan from a Cebu-based financing company. The women are believed to be part of a group selling or mortgaging fake land titles in an upscale subdivision in Cebu. The mother posed as the doctor who owned the piece of property but an employee of the register of deeds who knew the real owner alerted the NBI about the impostors. Prior to that, the women have been able to mortgage a three-hectare property for P2 million at a rural bank in Cebu.

A couple of years ago, there was a furor over a land scam somewhere in Davao del Norte by a group that offered a large tract of land that can be made available to farmers through the Agrarian Reform Program in the province, compete with land titles to support the group’s claim. Unfortunately, land verification was only conducted after the local DAR office – and consequently the beneficiaries – have been victimized. What’s puzzling, however, is how the government agency fell for such a scam, believing the claims of the group without verifying the authenticity of the titles considering that the supposed property was huge, and in an area that had undergone previous surveys.

In a lot of cases involving estafa through the falsification of public documents, it’s allegedly the employees themselves of the Land Reform Authority (LRA) and the Register of Deeds who connive with these criminals. Poor record keeping by the LRA has also resulted in the tampering or switching of important documents. A lot of victims have also been overseas Filipino workers who were duped into buying houses and other properties which turn out to be fakes later on. At times, real estate brokers even collude with syndicates to defraud OFWs of their hard-earned money by selling properties that are not for sale or whose ownership is questionable, luring victims by offering low “pre-development” prices to make targets shell out money right away.

In several instances, these syndicates even go so far as to print out brochures and photos showing the supposed property and creating websites detailing the supposed development of condo units or townhouses. As a matter of fact, ocular inspections are even conducted, complete with bulldozers and backhoes to give the impression that construction activity is indeed ongoing.

In the United States, there are private companies offering “title insurance” which can help make sure a title is clean. It offers protection in case of future legal problems like defective titles, liens, right of way and other encumbrances, and will provide legal defense or reimburse the owner for losses up to the maximum amount provided for by the policy. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing here in the Philippines.

There are a lot of cases pending in our courts that involve not only fake titles but land grabbing, falsified deeds, double sale of property, undisclosed encumbrances like existing mortgages and unregistered lands. Senator Nene Pimentel had filed a bill calling for the cadastral survey of the entire country to identify legitimate landowners and protect them from defective titles. The rationale behind this bill is to stabilize ownership by ensuring that land surveys – which are the basis of land titles – are conducted accurately.

I’ve also been told that the bureaucratic and disorganized land titling system in this country adds to the problem since too many agencies are involved in land administration and registration. As far as I know, Ed Angara had already filed a bill seeking to create a single government agency to handle everything related to land administration, titling and registration. This will streamline the process, make it less costly and enable the government to collect proper real estate taxes. Perhaps this can also solve the perennial problem posed by overlapping functions between government agencies which often result in chaos and confusion. But more importantly this legislation can help curb the proliferation of fake land titles and crimes related to real estate.

There have been too many cases involving land grabbing, fake titles, double selling of property and the like, but unfortunately, it usually takes too long to resolve cases like these. There should be a special court dedicated to real estate disputes with higher penalties imposed to punish these crooks who have no scruples, victimizing people especially those who worked so hard to save money just to obtain a small piece of terra firma.

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