More than 160 beneficiaries of Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada’s Land for the Landless Program or LLP are one step closer to obtaining titles to lots awarded to them a few years ago.
Estrada has distributed certified true copies of City Tenants and Security Committee Resolution No. 008-2017 to each of the 165 lot awardees, confirming ownership of lots given to them since 2013.
“This is legal proof that you are the sole owner of the lots awarded to you. This is also the realization of your dreams to have a land you can call your own,” Estrada told the LLP beneficiaries during ceremonies at the city hall.
Signed by Estrada on June 7, 2017, CTSC Resolution 008-2017 acknowledges the Certificates of Lot Awards previously given to lot awardees under the LLP from 2013 to 2015. The legal document specifies the lot area given to each beneficiary as well as the terms and conditions of the award.
When he was elected in 2013, Estrada vowed to provide decent homes and lots to deserving Manileños, especially indigent families. On September 2013, 39 beneficiaries received land certificates, followed by 57 on April 2014; 40 on February 2015; and 29 more on June 2015.
“Your lots are not in faraway places or in the mountains of Tralala, not in grass fields or at the end of forever, but right here in the middle of Manila,” he pointed out.
The LLP is based on City Tenants and Security Committee Resolution No. 16-A and Republic Act 409, or the Revised Charter of the City of Manila. Through expropriation, the city government buys private properties that are then distributed to qualified applicants.
Meanwhile, Estrada ordered the Manila Police District to investigate the ambush of a Manila policeman who was the primary suspect in the killing of a policewoman last March, and was also involved in illegal drugs.
Following the ambush and slaying of PO2 Mark Anthony Piniano, Estrada contacted MPD Director Chief Supt. Joel Coronel to relay his strict instructions to look into the killing and determine who could have wanted the policeman dead.
“Whatever the motives and circumstances, we owe it to the policeman’s family to investigate the case. I have tasked our city police force to leave no stones unturned and ensure that justice is served,” he said.
Stressing that he does not condone the extrajudicial killing of law enforcers involved in drugs and other criminal activities, Estrada also tasked Coronel to watch other police personnel being investigated for any wrongdoing.
Piniano, who was the main suspect in the killing of P01 Jorsan Marie Alafriz on March 19 in Quiapo, was last assigned to the MPD Headquarters Support Unit along United Nations Avenue while facing investigation, according to Coronel.
Under the LLP project, the awardees are given 20 to 25 years to pay for the lots at affordable rates. Within two years from the awarding of the lot, the beneficiaries should occupy the area and vacate the premises not included in the award, according to Danny Isiderio, chief of the city’s Urban Settlements Office.
The price of the 40-to-50 square meter lots range from P300,000 to P400,000, with monthly amortizations of just P500 to P1,500. The lot cannot be sold or rented to others for 20 years without the written consent of the Office of the Mayor, and it should be used for residential purposes only.
With the CTSC Resolution No. 008-2017, the land awardees will only have to wait for the Deed of Sale that would eventually pave the way for the issuance of Transfer Certificate of Title under their name, according to Isiderio.
Early this month, Estrada has identified 470 more families as the next beneficiaries of the land distribution program.
For 2017, he has set aside an initial fund of P50 million for the expropriation of the five private estates where the 470 would-be beneficiaries have long been occupying.
One such property is the 28,789-square meter estate that covers the streets of Jose Abad Santos, Solis, and Antipolo in Barangays 215 and 216 in Tondo. The landowner, Vargas Realty, Inc., wants to sell it to the city government at P1.3 billion.