Hearings pushed to address Baguio City 211 land title rift

BAGUIO CITY – The city council committee on laws, human rights and justice pushed consultations and public hearings on how to go about the proposed re-opening of the validation period of purported 211 land titles in the city so as not to make current situation from being complicated that will result to more problems instead of coming out with supposed solutions.

Councilor Faustino Olowan, chairman of the committee agreed with the contention of Mayor Mauricio Domogan the proposed re-opening of the validation of 211 land titles should undergo study to ascertain whether or not merits of the re-opening of the validation period will do more good to the situation of lands in the city.

“We will not wait for the law mandating the re-opening of the validation period to be enacted before we start moving. Let us now start consulting with the stakeholders to get their sentiments and the recommended win-win solutions so that we will determine if we will still push through with the enactment of the proposed law now pending in the Senate,” Councilor Olowan said.

Olowan said it will be difficult to be dealing with a peculiar situation once the law mandating the re-opening of the validation of 211 titles will be approved because there will be complications on the matter, especially when the lands have already been occupied, thus, the need for concerned agencies and the local government to consult the available stakeholders.

Earlier, Domogan warned that the possible enactment of a legislation that will open the validation of 211 titles in the different parts of the city will result to more problems rather than solutions in the disposition of lands in the city.

The local chief executive claimed that the pending legislation in Congress should be seriously studied to weigh its possible impacts to the existing condition of the lands that have unvalidated 211 titles so as not to open the floodgates that will lead to the filing of cases that will render the same useless.

 If the land subject of the 211 titles that will be validated is now occupied by inhabitants who had been living in the area for a reasonable period of time and that the same had already been classified as alienable and disposable, he said that the residents who were able to acquire legal instruments to own the property will surely question the legality of whatever law that will be enacted for the purpose that will surely result to further serious delays in the validation of the 211 tiles.

Domogan said there will be no problem if the land subject of the 211 tiles that will be opened for validation is not yet occupied or classified as alienable and disposable, thus, the need for lawmakers to scrutinize the pending legislation so that it will not appear as a false promise for those who still possess unvalidated 211 titles.

According to him, the issue on the possible re-opening of the validation of unvalidated 211 titles issued covering certain lands in the city was brought to his attention when he was the city’s representative to the House of Representatives but there were identified serious repercussions once the period for validation will be re-opened.