Baguio officials probe titling of forest reserve

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY — City officials strongly criticized the issuance of a certificate of land title (CALT) covering a portion of the Forbes Park forest and watershed reservation, saying the act of the National Commission on Indigenous peoples (NCIP) is against the welfare of the general public.

The uproar by concerned residents over the issuance and registration of CALT with the Registry of Deeds prompted the city council to create a task force, composed of the city legal office, city planning and development office, city assessor’s office and the city engineer’s office, to investigate the anomaly.

Annotations in the declaration of real property at the city assessor’s office indicated that the title, which was issued to the heirs of Lauro Carantes, covers an area within the forest reservation and overlaps with properties owned by the Republic of the Philippines and the City of Baguio.

The council said no title should have been issued to any portion of the property because it was earlier identified as a forest reservation. The unabated issuance of CALTs in different areas in the city has threatened to frustrate the city government’s bid to preserve and protect the remaining declared forest reservations here.