SANTIAGO CITY, Isabela —The Office of the President has been urged by the Kilusang Pagbabago (KP) to look into reports that key officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in the Ilocos Region are involved in a widescale land-grabbing operation by a group of real-estate developers.
In a position paper submitted to Cabinet Secretary Leoncio B. Evasco, KP Northern Luzon Coordinator Roland A. Colobong asked Malacañang to take immediate steps to pin down the government officials linked to tbe reported anomaly which, he said, is putting the administration of President Duterte in bad light.
The KP paper said the landgrabbing scheme by the real-estate group has spurned investment plans to revitalize the ailing beach-resort industry in La Union, especially in Bauang town that used to be known as the country’s beach capital.
Owners of titled prime-beach lots in the province, it said, are now scared of putting up capital to upgrade resort facilities since the DENR director in the region has started filing cases canceling their land titles before the regional trial court.
As a watchdog of the President’s program on good governance, the KP Northern Luzon chapter informed the Palace it verified complaints by affected landowners, some of whom had already lost their titles.
In all the cases where the land titles were ordered canceled, the DENR was represented by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG).
Even pending review of the court ruling by the Court of Appeals, the lands were ordered reverted to public-estate status, thus granting the DENR authority to issue foreshore lease agreements, the KP paper stated.
The Palace was informed the “shady procedure” of land-title cancellation/reversion starts with “fake surveys” by DENR fieldmen declaring the areas as “underwater and salvage zones.” The fake surveys were undertaken to “satisfy” protests filed by protégés of the real-estate group.
Then cases are filed for title cancellation by the DENR before the court.
Meanwhile, the legal counsel for the landowners who lost their titles as a result of the court litigation asked Solicitor-General Jose Calida in a letter to investigate the possible collusion of the OSG lawyers in the cases for land-title cancellation with the real-estate group.
In raising suspicion of collusion, the landowners’ lawyer cited the “irregular” mailing of summons from the OSG. He informed Calida that one of the OSG summons contained in an ordinary envelope (OSG main office address and name of addressee handwritten) was personally delivered to his law firm’s address by an employee of the head of the real-estate group. The lawyer sought clarification on the unusual incident, but never got a reply from the OSG lawyers assigned in the case.
Another notice from OSG in an “unofficial” OSG envelope (OSG address markings not computerized) was mailed from the Bauang post office instead of at the Ermita, Manila post office, the lawyer informed Calida in his letter.
Earlier, in a parallel appeal for “fair justice,” the lawyer informed Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu in a letter about anomalies in the conduct of investigations on land claims.
He asked the Cabinet official to create and mobilize a task force to check on the alleged ongoing irregularities at the DENR regional office in San Fernando, La Union.