Tag Archives: land titles

NGCP warns public in ROW scam

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The Manila Times
May 25, 2013

A fake group pretending to be National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) personnel has been roaming around the Zamboanga area to victimize residents with a strategic scam concerning right-of-way (ROW) claims.

In a statement, NGCP said that it is warning the public of a proliferating systematized scam in the Zamboanga area in Mindanao concerning ROW claims.

The country’s power grid developer cited that an organized group has been contacting land owners along or under NGCP transmission lines and facilities, and has been allegedly promising land owners an amount of P50,000 to P300,000 for every tower constructed within their properties.

The group will then require land owners to provide a copy of their certificate of land title or tax declaration to support their supposed claim from NGCP.

In return, the owners are also asked to pledge 40 percent of their claim as the organization’s commission rate.

“These fraudulent acts are not sanctioned by NGCP and this organization does not have the legal personality to represent NGCP,” the lawyer Cynthia Alabanza, the company’s spokesperson, said.

“We would like to warn the public to refrain from transacting with these individuals, as they are not connected with NGCP and will only take advantage of your properties,” she added.

According to NGCP, it conducts ROW negotiations with landowners whose properties are and will be traversed by transmission lines.

“Such negotiations are done professionally and no fees or documents will be required from land owners,” NGCP said.

The company further said that it directly deals with landowners and has not authorized any third-party representatives to conduct negotiations.
Madelaine B. Miraflor

House OKs nationwide cadastral survey

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March 17, 2012
By Charlie V. Manalo

The House of Representatives has approved on second reading a bill authorizing the Land Management Bureau (LMB) to conduct a nationwide cadastral survey to curb the proliferation of fake land titles.

House Bill 5870 authored by San Juan Rep. Joseph Victor Ejercito aims to restore the integrity of land titles by identifying bonafide landowners and claimants.

Ejercito said land owners must be protected against defective titles. The integrity of the Torrens Title System, as a foundation of ownership to real property must be enhanced, so that in the end, the faith and reliance of the people on the integrity of the land title will be restored.

Under the measure to be known as the “Cadastral Survey Act of 2012,” the LMB is authorized to conduct a survey of the entire country.

The survey shall consist of research and reconnaissance; establishment recovery and densification of project control and political boundary surveys.

Survey activities further include lot surveys, inspection, verification and approval of survey returns.

The LMB is mandated to award any survey contract, subject to applicable bidding rules and regulations, to qualified geodetic engineers engaged in survey work with the most advantageous terms to the government.

The bill directs the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to include in its program the implementation of this Act and the inclusion of its funding in the annual general appropriations.

The bill was endorsed for plenary approval by the House committee on natural resources chaired by Surigao del Norte Rep. Francisco Matugas.

The co-authors of the measure are Matugas and Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya.

Land registration goes high-tech

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By Riza T. Olchondra
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 08/08/2010

Ready to fork out your life’s savings for a property to call your own and later bequeath to your children?

You need to verify if the real estate you’re buying actually exists, and the Land Registration Authority (LRA) will help you with that—electronically.

The LRA has made a bold move to comply with the E-Commerce Law and to turn its century-old manual registration into a technology-driven system through the so-called Land Titling Computerization Project.

Computerization uses physical references such as municipal maps, cadastral maps, and others in combination with satellite imaging to show the placement of new and existing registered lots in relation to each other.

The software employed uses the lot dimensions and border landmarks stated in the title.

LRA deputy administrator Ofelia E. Abueg-Sta. Maria told the Inquirer that the electronic plotting is not only an added service to owners of newly titled land. It also helps in verifying the validity land titles, which takes up about 40 percent of the agency’s daily activity.

“There are times when the land plotted is shown to take up the space of other existing land titles, or apparently takes up part of a road! These are warning signs to potential property buyers,” she said.

The computerization project is also seen to protect the original land titles from normal wear and tear, disasters such as fire and flooding and mismanagement.

Files are easily retrievable and are stored in electronic form in the LRA offices and in an “offshore site.”

The LRA’s services include original registration; subsequent registrations (registration of transfers, mortgages, etc.); divisions and consolidations of registered parcels; registration of condominiums; reconstitution of title (i.e., replacement of lost or destroyed titles); replacement of owner’s duplicate of title; and amendments of certificates.

To date, 81 registries of deeds of the LRA have been automated out of the target 168 by 2011.