The city government had to undertake the tedious and difficult task of reconstituting titles of real estate properties which were destroyed in the fire incident in June 1988 at City Hall.
Belmonte said that of over 50,000 land titles, only 13,000 so far have been reconstituted; 7,500 of which have been handed over to the landowners.
Gemmo Santos, head of the Land Titling Office, said 6,500 reconstituted titles are now ready for distribution at his office. He said the mayor is set to distribute some 500 reconstituted titles at city hall.
Santos said the reconstitution of all real properties is necessary to establish their accurate and current market values. Landowners, according to him, must have clean titles to their properties for purposes of securing loans or selling them.
"Payment of taxes will be much more efficient and the city government will realize more income once the titles of real properties have been completely reconstituted," Santos added.
Belmonte urged the city’s landowners to file their applications for the reconstitution of the title to their properties for which no fees or service charges are being collected or imposed.