ANOTHER PURCHASE GONE BAD

Property subject to CARP

GONE with the wind?

It appears today that the 30-hectare property in barangay Awai, San Jacinto bought by the Dagupan City government for P16 million as a possible sanitary landfill site may never be owned by the city after all.

The City Legal Office recently discovered that the property was the subject of land acquisition under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) by virtue of a decision of the Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (DARAB) as early as 2003.

City Legal Officer George Mejia unearthed this fact when he began his investigation on the Awai property bought by the city in 2002 following an order from City Administrator Alvin Fernandez.

Mejia said among the documents turned over to him by Assistant City Legal Officer Roy Laforteza was a letter to the city government dated May 10, 2005 by Leonida Nebrez, the Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer   (MARO)   of   San Jacinto, who confirmed that the property is under the coverage of CARP.

The letter of Nebres indicates that the 29.893-hectare property owned by the city “is now under compulsory acquisition as per DARAB (Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (DARAB) decision dated September 22, 2003 in Case No. 01-03-2182”.

Mejia said Laforteza, OIC city legal officer during the administration of Mayor Benjamin Lim, immediately wrote DARAB seeking exemption of the subject property from the coverage of CARP.

Laforteza claims that his letter was never answered by DARAB.

Mejia was already directed to proceed to Urdaneta City where the Department of Agrarian Reform is located to verify from DARAB if it had acted favorably on the city government’s request for exemption.

He said he also wants to verify from DARAB if it already distributed the described lands to the tenants and if so, to determine how many hectares are finally retained by the city.

In case the distribution has been completed, the city government has to determine how much compensation would be paid to the city.

Mejia believes that the property bought by the city from one Mariano Cuna had tenant farmers, which was why it was a subject of a case heard by DARAB involving the tenants against the former owner.

The deed of absolute sale of the property identified Cuna as the seller and the city of Dagupan represented by then Mayor Benjamin Lim as the buyer.

The document, signed by both parties on April 11, 2002, stipulated that the buyer pays an initial amount of P11,780,441 with the remaining balance of P4,339,558.78 to be paid after 45 days.

Another Deed of Absolute Sale, however, obtained by The PUNCH from another source showed Cuna bought the property on December 18, 2001 from one Estrella F. Sangalang for P70,000.

In only after less than four months, Cuna sold the same property to the Dagupan City government for P16 million or about P500,000 per hectare,

Mejia said he is studying options for the recovery of the amount it paid Cuña for the property.—LM

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