WASHINGTON-A victim of a land title fraud in Tagaytay has urged Filipino-Americans to think twice about investing in real estate property in the Philippines because of the possibility they could lose their life savings.
Leocadio Fernandez who resides in Falls Church, northern Virginia, said in an open letter to the community that a land title was no guarantee that an investor’s real property was safe and secure in the Philippines because of “scalawags in the Register of Deeds.’
“If you think your real property is safe and secure think again. You may be shocked to find out that your land has already been sold, foreclosed, or encumbered without your knowledge," said Fernandez, who retired in August after working for over 20 years at the Oman Embassy in Washington.
‘The fact that your land title is in your
physical possession does not guarantee your continuous ownership of the land.
Please take the time off to check on the status of your land with the
appropriate Register of Deeds in the Philippines,’ he said.
Fernandez knows of what he talks about.
He said he and his siblings migrated to
the United States after their father Macario Fernandez, who owned two parcels
of land in Tagaytay — a 2-hectare parcel (Lot A) and a 3-hectare parcel (Lot B)
— died in 1975.
In 2002 when the Fernandez siblings — two
boys and two girls — tried to partition the properties extra-judicially they
discovered that a duplicate copy of the title of Lot A held by the Tagaytay
Register of Deeds had an annotation indicating it had been mortgaged to the
Philippine Bank of Communications (PBCom) for P13.4 million.
The late Fernandez allegedly mortgaged
the property on April 8, 2003 in consideration of certain loans,
overdrafts, accommodations, and other banking facilities obtained by Gloria
Maris Food Corporation from PBCom.
To prevent any other fraudulent
transaction “we filed a notice on 19 October 2004 to the Register of Deeds of
Tagaytay City, Atty. Reynaldo Aquino, advising him not to entertain any
transaction relative to my father’s (other) property without our consent,’
Fernandez said.
However, when relatives went to the
Office of the City Treasurer on Sept. 29, 2005 to pay property taxes due on the
late Fernandez’s real properties, they found out that the tax declaration
pertaining to Lot B had been cancelled and a new tax declaration issued in
favor of Gloria Maris Food Corporation.
“My relatives discovered that Atty.
Aquino cancelled our own TCT (Transfer Certificate of Title) by virtue of
an alleged Deed of Absolute Sale purportedly executed by one Macario Fernandez
in favor of Gloria Maris for P12 million," he said.
His question is how can a dead man
mortgage his property to secure a loan contracted by a third party he did not
even know.
The Fernandez siblings have filed cases with
the Department of Justice (with respect to Lot A) and with the Office of the
Ombudsman (on Lot B), but these are still pending.
Fernandez hopes these cases will be resolved
quickly to send a strong message to Filipino-Americans hoping to retire in
their native land that the Philippine government is serious in its efforts to
clean the bureaucracy of corrupt officers and employees.
Fernandez’s cautionary tale comes at a
time when Filipino developers with the help of Philippine diplomatic missions
in Washington, Honolulu, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York are
vigorously promoting the country’s real estate and property development sector
in the US market.
Their pitch to Filipino-Americans: Your
dollar goes further in the Philippines than it does in the US.
But so do the risks, as Fernandez’s tale
shows.
