INTRAMUROS is not for sale. That was the message of the Department of Tourism (DOT), after the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) in November reversed its opinion that had earlier recognized the titles of a private couple over lots on which the Maestranza quarters in the walled city have been standing.
“The favorable opinion of the OSG now paves the way for the immediate completion of the rehabilitation work on the Maestranza,” said Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat in an interview with the BusinessMirror.
The DOT, through its attached agency the Intramuros Administration (IA), wants to transform the Maestranza chambers into a curated hub for the arts. Earlier targeted for completion in the first quarter of 2020, the rehabilitation work was put on hold when Dario and Amelia Coronel sought to recover Lots 1 and 3 of the compound. Lot 1 is currently used as a parking lot by the IA Employees Association, but had hosted informal settlers before they were resettled to Cavite in 2006.
The next step, according to IA administrator, lawyer Guiller Asido, is to “file a case to revert to the government and cancel those titles on lots being claimed by the spouses Coronel.” He added the IA is now “coordinating the filing of the case with the OSG [who will represent the IA] and the Land Management Bureau [LMB].”
The LMB is an attached agency of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources tasked with administering, surveying, managing and disposing of Alienable and Disposable lands, and other government lands not placed under the jurisdiction of other government agencies.
The Maestranza creative hub has 44 chambers that will be turned into artist studios, exhibition spaces, and areas where workshops can be conducted. Some chambers can also be leased for restaurants and cafes, as well as a business center, according to IA’s plans. The hub will stand on the 270-meter wall that overlooks the Pasig River.
The property has been the subject of major rehabilitation program of the DOT since 2004, and involves the reconstruction of the curtain wall.
According to sources, some 50 security guards allegedly hired by the Coronel spouses, “by intimidation and force, took over the peaceful possession of IA over the property,” on September 15, following the OSG’s opinion issued in May, recognizing their titles as valid.
This led to a standoff between the Philippine National Police and the Coronels’ security personnel, but “to keep the peace, the parties eventually agreed to vacate and lock the property.”
However, the new OSG opinion rendered on November 27, 2019, and signed by SolGen Jose C. Calida, said, based on new facts presented by the IA, “the National Government, through the IA, owns the subject lots [Lots 1 and 3], or the Maestranza property.”
It added, “The description or condition of the Maestranza property as a national park, is inalienable in nature and character has not changed for several decades, and thus it cannot be subject of private ownership.”
The OSG also underscored that Intramuros and its walls had been declared national historical monuments through Republic Act No. 597 (An Act to Declare Fort Santiago a National Shrine and to Provide for the Preservation of Historical Monuments in the Walled City of Manila) issued in 1951. “Indubitably, Intramuros, including its walls, is part of the public domain and not susceptible of alienation and disposition.”
Asido averred that the IA also presented evidence showing that the titles supposedly held by the spouses Coronel was fake. This included a letter from the Manila City legal officer dated August 2019, saying that the transfer of title on Lot 1 was made using a fake certificate of payment dated May 23, 2016.
In its latest opinion, however, the OSG questioned the title held by one Hector Bechayda for subject Lot 1 issued on July 28, 1981 when in 1979, Presidential Proclamation 1925 was issued by then-President Ferdinand Marcos, “reserving for park and other public purposes of the Intramuros Administration a certain parcel of land of the private domain of the national government situated in the district of Intramuros…” Bechayda had supposedly sold the lot to the spouses Coronel. “It cannot be overemphasized therefore that Original Certificate of Title (OCT) No. 10951 and its derivative titles issued over the subject Lot 1 are void.”
While no law declares Lot 3 in the public domain, the OSG noted the IA’s argument that Lot 3 was supposedly covered by a 99-year lease under an Insular Government Lease Agreement and Antonio R. Chua/Nasugbu Commercial Corp., which was supposed to have ended in 2016. The company, however, failed to produce said lease agreement.
Also, the ARC building which was constructed on the lot, “was abandoned in April 2006, and later demolished and vacated.” IA took over the Maestranza property, including Lots 1 and 3, until it was cordoned off by the Coronel spouses in 2016. The Coronels had alleged that improvements on Lot 3 had been made by a predecessor, which caused the issuance of OCT 10922.
“In sum, the OSG opines that reversion and cancellation of title proceedings, subject to the completion of a report and supporting documents, may prosper as regards [a] Lot 1/1-A based on violations of PP No. 1925 and Republic Act No. 730, and [b] Lot 3 based on violations of RA No. 730. Issued in 1952, RA 730 permits the sale without public auction of public lands of the Philippines for residential purposes to qualified applications under certain conditions.