Zoning, building permits denied over lot with ‘spurious’ CALT

By Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – City officials last week defended the non-issuance of a zoning clearance and a building permit over a lot at Outlook Drive here covered by a Certificate of Ancestral Land Title (CALT) declared irregular and now eyed for cancellation by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).

Mayor Mauricio Domogan, city legal officer Melchor Carlos Rabanes and city planning and development coordinator Evelyn Cayat said the city cannot issue the requested clearance and permit to the land as it is covered by a CALT that was issued anomalously apart from being “inalienable” and part of a “road easement of Outlook Drive” and therefore “incapable of appropriation by any private individual and beyond the commerce of men.” 

The three officials were sued by businesswoman Imelda Tan Lao for mandamus after failing to issue the clearance and permit Lao was applying for.  The case is docketed as Civil Case No. 8291-R mandamus before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 3.

In the comment submitted Sept. 14 to the court, the city executives said Lao’s transfer certificate of title (TCT) is a transfer from TCT 2010002820 registered in the name of Virginia Gao-an which is a derivative of Original CALT 130 registered in the name of the heirs of Josephine Abanag Molintas.

“OCT No. O-CALT-130 and its derivative titles are presently the subject of cancellation proceedings with the NCIP in NCIP OJ Case No. 007-2011 and with the Supreme Court in G.R. No. 208480,” the officials noted in the comment.

They said the NCIP ordered the cancellation of the ancestral land title form used in the issuance of O-CALT-130 after these were declared “unaccounted for” and just recently, the NCIP recognized the “findings and recommendations of its investigating team that that the said title which were irregularly issued should be cancelled.”

In her petition filed last Aug. 20, Lao represented by attorney-in-fact Roger Angway asked the court to order the respondents to issue the clearance and permit applied for and to reimburse the litigation expenses.

She claimed owning the 2,972 square meter lot under TCT NO. 018-2012002678; and being denied issuance of the clearance or permit by Cayat citing the legal opinion from the city legal office penned by Attorney III Isagani Liporada that the requested clearance cannot be processed due to the pending cases involving the mother title.

She denied knowledge over the lot’s circumstances but averred that her purchase of the same was done in good faith and is justified under Republic Act No. 8371 of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997, section 8 (B) and other issuances.

In the comment, the respondents said Lao “cannot be considered as an innocent purchaser for value” because as a “veteran businesswoman and long-time resident of Baguio as alleged by her,” she should have been aware of the status of O-CALT-130  which is of public knowledge since it covers lands already titled under the Torrens system, government reservations like the Wright Park and the Mansion Grounds and areas within the road-right of way and the subject of newspaper reports and public information campaigns.

She should know that “the property covered by her title forms part of the road easement of an area of Baguio which the seat and location of government reservations and popular tourist destinations namely the Wright Park and Mansion House.  This fact alone should have put petitioner on her guard and inquiry.”

They said the annotation of cases in the previous titles of the lot should have also made her wary of its status.

Moreover, the respondents said the “petitioner is not a legitimate transferee of the said parcel of land as there is no evidence that she is a Filipino citizen, and moreover, petitioner is not a member of the same ICCs/IPs (indigenous cultural communities/indigenous peoples) to whom the CALT was issued by the NCIP to make her a qualified transferee pursuant to Section 8 paragraph b of R.A. 8371.”

In the comment, the city officials sought the outright dismissal of the petition.