Ciudad hearing today: Capitol to discuss land title

CEBU, Philippines - After showing yesterday the original land title which Rep. Tomas Osmeña (Cebu City, south district) had claimed is fake, Provincial Attorney Marino Martinquilla said he will discuss the issue thoroughly during the public hearing of the Ciudad project tomorrow.

Martinquilla maintained that the Capitol has “clean title” of the property for the proposed Ciudad project, a joint undertaking of the Provincial Government and the Fifth Avenue Development Corp. He said that Osmeña might not have understood when he got hold of the documents, prompting him to ask the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to suspend the processing of the project’s application for an environmental compliance certificate.

“Wa lang siguro siya kasabot. He is trying to make an issue out of it,” Martinquilla said.

The Environmental Management Bureau of DENR-7 has certified last August 2, 2011 that the ECC application for Ciudad Land Development Project in Barangay Apas, Cebu City is currently under pre-evaluation by the office.

Jonjie Gonzales, the developer’s PR consultant, told The FREEMAN that they used the said certification to secure the locational clearance from the Cebu City Planning and Development Office.

“That proves our documents are in order when it was received by DENR,” Gonzales said.

The CPDO issued the locational clearance, saying that the Fifth Avenue Development Corp. has met the requirements such as barangay clearance, site development plan, vicinity map, engineering details and floor plan, among others.

The Fifth Avenue Property Development Corp. needs an ECC to secure a building permit from the Cebu City Office of the Building Official.

In a letter dated October 7, 2011 to DENR-7, Osmeña claimed that Ciudad’s developer applied for an ECC using void titles.

Osmeña said that the two documents submitted by Fifth Avenue for its ECC application indicated two lots which are covered by two titles under the name of the Province of Cebu.

One of the titles, which covers an area of 5.9555 hectares, was reportedly submitted to DENR-7 and was discovered to be void.

However, the said titles were resubmitted to DENR-7 and were allegedly accepted when a new copy of the said title was resubmitted and the word “cancelled” on all its pages have been removed. — (FREEMAN)