Pimentel urges review of NBI report on Cavite land mess

The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee sought yesterday a review of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) report which recommended to the Office of the Ombudsman the prosecution of former and incumbent officials of Kawit, Cavite linked to the alleged illegal titling of portions of Bacoor Bay.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., who chairs the Senate panel, made the recommendation after Nelson Bartolome, chief of the NBI's anti-fraud and computer division, testified yesterday that they have recommended to the Ombudsman the filing of falsification charges against former and incumbent officials of Kawit led by former mayor, now Agrarian Reform Undersecretary Federico Poblete.

Bartolome said his office's report on the Cavite "land scam" was based on the statements of two DENR officials - Fred Feria, officer-in-charge of the forest management sector, and Elpidio Tolentino, community environment officer - who claimed that their signatures on a document which declared the disputed area alienable and disposable were forged.

He said the forged document was the basis for the issuance of the title to the 35-hectare disputed land.

Pimentel, however, requested the NBI to subject the document to laboratory examination to ensure a tight case against the people recommended for prosecution.

"We might be recommending and causing the imprisonment of innocent people," he said.

Pimentel said anyone can always deny that they have signed a document, "but the issue is whether their signatures are authentic."

The Senate inquiry was an offshoot of the privilege speech of Sen. Ramon Revilla on the alleged illegal titling and reclamation of 35 hectares of land in Bacoor Bay which he blamed for the massive flooding in several Cavite towns.