Tale of two titles

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

BAGUIO CITY -- While updating on local news and the demolition of shanties by the Kennon Road Lion’s head through the media chat room on internet, one of the mainstays in the chat group commented that government demolition teams are fast on small structures but are slow or afraid to touch big businessmen.

Another chatter followed up the first comment saying, hotels along Marcos Highway that have encroached on the road were not touched but the small stalls were demolished.

That pressed me to confirm from a knowledgeable friend at city hall about the construction of a concrete structure below the controversial Casa Vallejo heritage building if that has been issued a building permit.

I was told that a building permit has already been secured on Oct. 17, 2019 by the Roebling Corp. that applied for it which explains why there was none the last time I passed by the construction site in September.

By the way, the structure is being constructed by the sidewalk of the Leonard Wood Road so the rip-rap wall that was erected with peoples’ taxes had to be removed.

I was also told by another source that the construction is owned allegedly by a former officer of the Natural Resources Development Corporation (NRDC), an attached agency of the DENR.

Casa Vallejo is one of the oldest remaining buildings in the city that was constructed sometime in 1905. Prior to becoming a hotel in 1924, it was a garrison for prisoners of the First World War in 1917.

Since it was claimed and used by the DENR then, and even while Baguio residents wanted to maintain it as a heritage site, it was leased to a private business entity through the NRDC around 10 years ago.

My informant was also told by the concerned government office that the Roebling Corp. holds a title over the land, even while I am a hundred per cent sure that the land where the old Casa Vallejo Hotel and nearby structures stand has an ancestral land title issued to the Heirs of Piraso, an Ibaloy pioneer of Baguio.

Certainly, there cannot be two titles issued to different owners over one and the same lot. But if indeed two land titles belonging to two different names were issued over one and the same lot, then one of them must be fraudulent.

Sometime in 2013, the Court of Appeals validated the ancestral land title issued to the Heirs of Piraso, particularly his daughter Cosen, by dismissing the petitions against the title filed by the Solicitor General.

In fact, the CA in its ruling reaffirmed a report by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples that Piraso, the ascendant of the Heirs of Cosen occupied his land at what is now known as Session Road.

The CA decision further directed other government agencies to provide protection to indigenous communities, their ancestral lands and ensure their economic, social and cultural well-being as mandated by RA 8371.

I am puzzled as to how another title was issued over the lot where a concrete structure is being built when the same lot already has a title. Unless, these are two adjacent lots that do not overlap each other, or the Heirs of Piraso sold portions of their title to Roebling Corp.