Tacloban City—The Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Land Management and Maps Bureau is investigating alleged massive land-grabbing activities by a businessman allegedly in cahoots with some personnel of the City Environment and Natural Resources Office stationed in Catbalogan City.
DENR-LMMB director Eduardo Unay issued the directive in the wake of complaints filed by rightful landowners here, mostly coconut farmers, who say their lot numbers were intentionally deleted from the records in favor of the unscrupulous individual.
Jose Sagala Sucapco, 58, of Barangay San Joaquin, Calbayog City, who represents the Sagala family’s heirs, said the lot numbers for the agricultural property owned by his late grandparents were deleted, and instead replaced by another set of numbers that fall in an unclassified forest (timberland) when checked.
Sucapco said his family was paying real property tax not knowing that the lot number designated in their Tax Declaration is for unclassified forest.
Unay directed CENRO Catbalogan to investigate thoroughly the issue raised by complainants, specifically the Sagalas.
Similar complaints were also filed by Leona Judluman, 78, President of Purok 4, 5, 6 neighborhood association. His claim for a four-hectare lot had been pending before the office of Geodetic Engr. Anne Ungab, head of records section of the CENRO Catbalogan.
Other complainants were from Norma Oraza, 56, of Bgy. Bagacay, Calbayog, and Jean Abo, 57, of Bgy. Malajog. Both applied for official map and technical description of their agricultural properties but they proved futile.
According to the complainants, Ungab, whose husband owns a survey firm, is the only person who has access to all information related to lands and mapping. Her husband, in some instances, was commissioned to do survey works in favor of the businessman.
The property being questioned by the Sagala heirs is lot 3402, an 18-hectare lot situated uphill of Bgy. San Joaquin planted to coconuts and vegetables being claimed by heirs of Lazaro Tancinco.
Sucapco said more than seven hectares of the lot owned by the Sagalas was forcibly taken by Tancinco back in the early ‘70s. He said his grandparents were sent to jail by the police and were forced to sign a document in exchange for their release from detention.
The heirs of Sagala, Sucapco said wrote a letter to DENR-LMMD, copy furnished the office of Land Registration Authority, Department of Agrarian Reform, and Land Bank of the Philippines, citing their protest over Tancinco claim of the land.
“We are not claiming the entire lot 3402 but only portion of it or 7.1 hectares which our grandparents paid tax over it,” they said.
CENRO Catbalogan Joselito Eco said he started the investigation to determine who among his office’s personnel are involved in this irregularity.
“Once investigation is completed, surely heads will roll,” said Eco during an interview.
Eco mobilized Venancio Baclayo, special land investigator, and told him to submit comprehensive reports and findings regarding the letter protest of the Sagala heirs.