Baguio mayor, congressman at odds over 211 land titles

Political intramurals 

BAGUIO CITY – The mayor and congressman of this city are now at loggerheads over land titles popularly known here as “211 titles.”

Both are running for the congressional post of this lone district come May elections.  

Rep. Mark Go authored the House version of the bill that seeks to re-open validation period of unvalidated 211 land titles while the Senate version is still pending deliberation.

Go, in authoring the bill earlier said the question of land ownership of the 211 titles should be settled, saying the law should prevail.

But Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan said pending proposals in Congress to re-open validation of unvalidated 211 titles in Baguio will result to displacement of thousands of residents who are actually occupying the lands covered by the 211 titles.

He said unvalidated 211 titles in the city should be dealt with on a case-to-case basis and not through another schedule for validation of unvalidated land titles.

Validation of unvalidated 211 land titles pursuant to Presidential Proclamation No. 1271 lapsed in February 1987 or over 32 years ago. 

A city hall press release by Dexter See said thousands of residents lands in areas covered by unvalidated 211 land titles have flocked to offices of city officials seeking assistance on what action to take once pending legislations on the re-opening of the validation period for invalidated 211 titles will be approved by Congress and eventually signed into law by President Rodrigo R. Duterte.

“We will surely be creating more problems than solutions if we will allow the validation of all unvalidated 211 titles as this will surely lead to a massive displacement of actual occupants of lands covered by unvalidated 211 titles once the same will be allowed if these pending bills on the matter will be enacted into law,” Domogan said.

He said the matter was brought to his attention by lawyers when he was still the congressman of the city but he declined to author the bill that will provide for a new validation period for the unvalidated 211 titles because he was aware of the situation in the areas that are covered by the said unvalidated titles.

According to him, if the lands covered by the unvalidated titles are already occupied by individuals apart from the supposed owner.

He said the same should not be covered by the proposed re-opening of the validation of the unvalidated 211 titles because the lands should have already reverted as part of the public domain, thus, the environment department could facilitate their declaration as alienable and disposable for their eventual award to the qualified actual occupants pursuant to existing laws, rules and regulations.

If it is the owner of the property that is currently occupying the lands covered by unvalidated 211 titles, he said re-opening validation period will be applicable because there will be no one that will be displaced.

He said the current state of lands covered by unvalidated 211 titles is that there are already numerous occupants of the said parcels of lands that will be affected once the said lands will be validated in favor of the declared applicant that could result to the eventual displacement of the existing occupants.