MULTI-MILLION LAND SCAM

COULD there be an organized syndicate operating in cahoots with insiders at the Land Registration Authority (LTA) to grab land from absent owners, particularly Pangasinenses abroad?

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is now looking into the matter following a complaint filed by a Filipino-Canadian woman from Calasiao whose family was nearly victimized by the scam which she believes already victimized others.

The Filipino-Canadian, Cora Andaya Castro, 69, a native of Barangay Bued, rushed home to the Philippines recently after learning that a 1.3 hectare prime land in Barangay Parongking, Calasiao she and her siblings had inherited from their parents was being mortgaged in a bank by someone who is a totally unknown to the family.

Castro said friends in Calasiao called her in Canada to inform her about a man applying for a P35 million loan with the GN Bank in Mangaldan town using as collateral the land titled in the name of her younger brother Rene Andaya.

Rene, who is also based in Canada and planning to come to Calasiao soon, asked his sister to immediately go home armed with a special power of attorney to look into the matter.

The 1.3 hectare commercial land, which is near Robinson’s Mall, is among the four properties of six Andaya siblings in Barangay Parongking.

Upon arriving last August 7, Castro went to GN bank and learned from a bank official that a person who introduced himself as one Arnaldo Yuson was indeed securing a loan by presenting a photocopy of a supposed Original Certificate of Title in the name of Rene Andaya.

E-TITLE

The photocopy was of an “e-title” which one Carlos de Guzman, supposedly from Calasiao too, secured from the LTA in Lingayen without presenting the original title.

“We were amazed because the Original Certificate of Title of the property was deposited at the safe deposit bank of Calasiao before we left for Canada ,” Castro told The PUNCH during a visit to the office accompanied by their property caretaker Floro Cardozo and lawyer Virgilio Manipud.

The loan application Yuson has been cancelled by GN Bank but that was not the end of the story.

Castro again learned from a friend that some people were soliciting buyers for the same property using the photocopy of the tile and a supposed photograph of Rene Andaya.

These people were identified as one Myrna Majam and a certain “Gutierrez”, a jeepney driver from Bonuan Gueset who went to Barangay San Miguel, Calasiao offering the property for sale to residents.

Some residents of Barangay San Miguel who know the Andayas, especially the siblings Cora and Rene, were startled and immediately informed them.

This prompted Castro to go to the NBI to file the complaint and seek an investigation.

Castro told The PUNCH that she is puzzled why the LTA appears to be readily issuing titles, particularly the new e-titles without first securing the Original Certificate of Title.

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