Fraudulent real estate transactions

I received a call from Benny, the nephew of our late Publisher Max Soliven, in reaction to our column the other day (“How to steal a house in Dasmariñas Village”), where we wrote that the house of Ambassador Consuelo “Baby” Puyat Reyes was reportedly sold without her knowledge by a certain Gregorio Co to Benny and his wife Michelle for P25 million.

According to Benny, they did not push through with the purchase because they saw a lot of “red flags” in connection with the property, and so now they have no idea what became of it. It’s really fortunate that Benny listened to his instincts when he sensed that something wasn’t quite right with the transaction. However, we are told there is still an ongoing litigation concerning the title to the property, with the ACCRA Law office handling the case on behalf of Ambassador Reyes.

Others however have not been as fortunate as Benny Soliven, perhaps because these people failed to conduct due diligence before deciding to buy. It’s always prudent to check the authenticity of the title and the history of the property. The fact of the matter is, there are still a lot of Filipinos who become victims of estafadors selling lots and houses with falsified titles, deeds and other documents. Even some bank officials reportedly use spurious documents to obtain loans from government banks and other financial institutions.

Last year, the Department of Justice ordered the prosecution of several officials of a now-defunct rural bank for submitting as collateral land titles that have been mortgaged with other banks, titles with different registered owners, foreclosed properties and nonexistent mortgages. These bank officials also forged the signatures of nonexistent borrowers to obtain several loans totaling P389 million from the Development Bank of the Philippines. Unfortunately, the fraud was only discovered after the money has been released. Interestingly, the DOJ also ordered the prosecution of DBP’s in-house counsel for allegedly conspiring to defraud the government bank.

Just how rampant the problem is can be gleaned from the reactions we received from readers recounting their unfortunate experiences. However, there are those who also blamed the labyrinthine procedure in registering property and the antiquated laws in this country such as the Property Registration Decree of 1974, Presidential Decree 1529 and the 1936 Commonwealth Act 141 or the Public Land Act for instance.

“Almost everyday, such cases occur in our country yet our land laws have not kept up with the times,” correctly pointed out Elmer Mercado, one of our readers who sent us an email, adding that these things affect not only the individual lives of Filipinos but also local investors – and rightly so since businesses could suffer if it is discovered later on that their establishments have been built on land that has a lot of encumbrances. In the end, it’s the ordinary Filipino employee who gets the raw end of the deal if the business folds up because of legal problems.

According to Nerissa Donato, another one of readers who emailed us, a woman going by the name of Marilou Fernandez claiming to represent a foreign company has been going around Tagaytay, meeting with subdivision homeowners who want to sell their houses.  What’s suspicious however is the refusal of the woman to name the supposed foreign company, instead asking homeowners to submit documents like copies of land titles, deeds, even marriage contracts ostensibly to facilitate payment even though no contract has been drawn between the sellers and the supposed buyer. What’s more, she even had the temerity to ask the homeowners to sign an authority to sell contract. Now, if this isn’t an obvious scam, then we don’t know what is.

Hopefully, the proposed Land Administration Reform Act (LARA) authored by Senator Ed Angara and its counterpart House Bill 1854 by Congressman Ed Zialcita which aim to create a single government agency – a Land Administration Authority – that would integrate the various functions of numerous government agencies handling real estate and property transactions can help minimize if not totally eradicate land-related  crimes. As far as we know, there are at least six agencies handling land administration procedures, which naturally cause a lot of overlapping of functions, not to say confusion. (Add to that the fact that there are also 23 agencies handling property appraisals with their own – and sometimes antiquated – systems and methods of valuation which can cause total chaos.)

However, these LARA bills have been languishing both in Congress and the Senate allegedly because various groups have been lobbying against their passage. Our reader also disclosed that there are currently 11 bills in Congress and seven bills in the Senate that propose the integration of these numerous land agencies into one entity. But despite overwhelming support from various groups including the business and banking sectors, real estate industry players and local chief executives, there is strong opposition coming from bureaucrats particularly those in the Registry of Deeds. Obviously, syndicates preying on hapless victims are also behind the opposition to the proposed bills.

The bottom line, however, is for people to be careful whether they are buying or selling property. Aside from verifying the authenticity of titles and other documents, it wouldn’t hurt to visit the property supposedly for sale or to check with the Securities and Exchange Commission to find out if the developer or seller is authorized to sell. If property stealing can happen in Dasmariñas Village and to an ambassador at that, then it can certainly happen to ordinary people in any part of the country.

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