Norzagaray, Bulacan 23 FEBRUARY 2010 2
COMMENTS by Lito Banayo from MALAYA
Norzagaray is a small town in the
northeastern fringes of Bulacan, in the foothills of the Sierra Madre.
It is bounded on the north by the town of Angat, and to its south is San
Jose del Monte City, now a bustling center where once the squatters
ejected from Intramuros resided. The foothills of the Sierra Madre where
the provinces of Rizal, Quezon and Bulacan straddle are ancestral home
to the Dumagats, indigenous Filipinos who used to subsist on hunting and
slash-and-burn farming, otherwise called kaingin. But because of
population explosion and its proximity to Quezon City, Norzagaray lands
have become a bit more valuable. It certainly would make a good venue
for low-cost housing. Last Thursday,
some 47 farmers, some of them still pure Dumagats, others of
inter-married stock, trooped to a small restaurant at the vicinity of
Quezon City Hall, and were met by a few reporters who listened to their
story. They were accompanied by a lawyer and a spokesperson showed
documents to prove their case. This
is their story: They have cultivated some 480 hectares
of land in Norzagaray since the late fifties. Some of them, the Dumagats
particularly, had forebears who were there since the times when the
fair-skinned invaded these islands. In
1960, they went to the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources
and applied for free patent to the lands they had continuously been in
possession of. In 1964, in the reign of Diosdado Macapagal, they or
their parents were awarded, under Original Certificates of Title (or
OCT. Note the word "original") No. P-858 Free Patent No. 257917, dated
April 27, 1964, by the Bulacan Register of Deeds.
Then, in March of 1987, a fire gutted the office of the
Registry of Deeds in Malolos, burning all copies of OCT’s in their
vault, necessitating TCT reconstitution proceedings. (Sometime back, the
same thing happened in Quezon City, creating consternation when fake
titles started sprouting, and a slew of contested property conflicts
arose). Being poor and un-sophisticated, the farmers did not at the time
file for title reconstitution. Meanwhile,
on April 24, 1998, Mrs. Cynthia A. Villar, as president of Capitol
Development Bank, and Anacordita H. Magno, its first vice-president,
signed a promissory note in favor of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)
for 1.168 billion and another for 332 million, for a total of 1.5
billion pesos, payable after 180 days, or due and payable on October 21,
1998. At the time the emergency loan of Capitol became payable, Manuel
B. Villar had risen from a third-term congressman to Speaker of the
House of Representatives. Meanwhile,
Capitol Development Bank was closed and its assets as well as
liabilities were transferred by the Villars to Optimum Development Bank,
with a certain Arturo P. de los Santos as its executive vice-president.
In June of 2001, Optimum through De los Santos signed a deed of real
estate mortgage over the Norzagaray lands in favor of BSP.. He once more
co-signed for Manila Brickworks, Inc., which was identified as the
owner of the lands. Both Manila Brickworks and Capitol Bank, later
Optimum Development Bank, were/are owned by the Villars. To cut a long story
short, BSP took
possession of the titles mortgaged by Capitol/Optimum and Manila
Brickworks because the Villars failed to pay their 1.5 billion loan.
Clearly, as we will later discover, the BSP took the titles surrendered
to them at face value, little noticing the provenance of its TCTs. And the
Malolos Registry of Deeds
forthwith transferred the Norzagaray land titles in favour of Bangko
Sentral. Such that when the farmers who held titles over land given to
them by the Republic in 1964 filed for reconstitution in 2004, they were
told that the same lands had already been transferred to the BSP! Upon
investigation by the Registry of
Deeds and subsequently the DENR, which succeeded the divided Department
of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR) in the disposition and
supervision over all public lands, it was discovered that the
BSP-foreclosed titles surrendered by the Villar bank and corporation
emanated from OCT No. 287 dated 25 July 1944. This was issued under a
sales patent which derived its existence from Sec.122 of Act 496 of the
Land Registration Act of the US Government. However during July 1944,
the country was under Japanese occupation and hence there was no valid
title issued under the said Act and therefore the said "Original"
certificate of title is clearly a FAKE and all transfer certificate of
titles arising from the said FAKE title are null and void. In fine, what the
Villars, through
Capitol/Optimum Bank and Manila Brickworks paid to the Bangko Sentral in
partial settlement of their billion-peso loans, were FAKE titles! And
aside form the BSP, which was clearly defrauded, victims now are the
poor farmers of Norzagaray, who cannot have their titles reconstituted.
If a farmer-family wants to obtain a loan so that they can send a son or
daughter abroad to work as an OFW (Villar’s advertised beneficiaries of
his generosity, for instance), they cannot do so, because the BSP also
holds title to the same. At one
time, the farmers said, the Villar corporations sent security guards to
drive them away from their land, but they resisted. This seems to be a
pattern, as we shall see in other land disputes involving the Villars.
The farmers went from office to office,
from the prosecutors office of Bulacan, as well as the DENR. They even
went to the office of Senator Ping Lacson after they heard about the
mysteries of the C-5 double appropriations. But Lacson’s Ethics
Committee could not take cognizance of the letter-complaint of the
farmers because then Sen. Pres. Manuel Villar was not yet a senator of
the Republic at the time the complained offense was committed. He was
yet a congressman, and later Speaker, and his wife Cynthia was not yet
even a congresswoman at the time she signed the promissory notes to
Bangko Sentral. The farmers, through
Gina S. Jarvina and Valentino Amador, et al, filed a complaint with the
Office of the Ombudsman on September 2008. Despite follow-ups, nothing
has been heard from the Ombudsman. Now
the man who purveyed their lands to the Bangko Sentral as foreclosed
property due to non-payment of a 1.5 billion peso loan contracted for by
his wife Cynthia, is running for president of the Philippines. And the
poor farmers whose ancestors have continuously lived and cultivated the
paltry lands of Norzagaray are deathly afraid that if Villar becomes
president and his wife Cynthia becomes First Lady, they would lose their
lands and their homes altogether. >
Kalaban na nila ang Bangko Sentral, the bank of all banks.
Kalaban pa nila ang susunod na Pangulo ng Pilipinas?
Eto opinion ko:
The Philippines is an agricultural country kaya dapat pagyamanin natin
ang ating agrikultura.. kung ganyang klaseng tao (Villar) ang mamumuno
sa atin eh talagang babagsak na ang Pilipinas..lahat na ng food
resources ay kailangan pang angkatin dahil hindi na tayo makapag-produce
nito..puro subdivision na ang ating lupain na pagmamay-ari ni C5 at
Taga...tsk, tsk, tsk....baka pag nagkataon gawin niyang isang buong
subdivision ang Pilipinas! Patay kang bata ka!!!
KAYA NGA HINDI KO SIYA IBOBOTO EH!!! PUTRIS SIYA! PAG NAKITA KO SA KALSADA YAN
EH UUPAKAN KO YAN...
