Thousands of residents to lose lots: CA ruling on expanded land titles in Baguio hit

>> Monday, April 27, 2009

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY -- Thousands of residents in three barangays in this mountain resort city stand to lose their lands which they have been occupying since time immemorial if a decision of the Court of Appeals upholding the legitimacy of the expanded titles of a subdivision developer is enforced.

This fear was aired as the CA was asked to reconsider its decision that granted Prime Peak Properties application for the validation of titles to a total of more than 51 hectares of land in Barangays Dontogan, Sto. Tomas Apugan and Outlook Drive here.

Juanito Ampaguey, head of the Register of Deeds in Baguio City, who also filed a motion for reconsideration on the controversial CA decision, said the appellate court erred on relying on a judgment by the Regional Trial Court because the RTC decision was based on an incorrect law, Section 108 of Presidential Decree 529.

The motion for reconsideration stated the CA cannot apply the doctrine of conclusiveness of judgment in the case since there was no identity of parties as well as causes of actions.

Moreover, it cannot be said that expansion of the areas in the questioned titles has been settled or passed upon by the RTC as it merely corrected the tie lines.

Ampaguey argued there was no statement in the RTC decision that the petitioner, Prime Peak Properties, has complied with the Public Land Act – that is if indeed Gloria de Guzman bought the five lots cited in the judgment.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Hakim Abdulwahid, the CA reversed for lack of merit its earlier decision that denied the application of Gloria de Guzman, general manager of Prime Peak Properties, for validation of titles to at least 51 hectares of properties in Dontogan, Sto. Tomas Apugan and Outlook Drive.

The decision granted De Guzman’s application for validation of the five controversial expanded titles which cover 511,586 square meters.

The same titles were said to be expanded from the original area of 10,300 square meters to include at least 51 hectares.

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