LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – An embattled land owner of a 1.4-hectare property allegedly outside the 48-hectare Puguis communal forest warned the public not to buy parcels of land being sold by unscrupulous informal settlers in the area until such time that all issues concerning their properties shall have been settled by the parties themselves.
Arnold Tolding, who reportedly has a registered title over a 1.4-hectare parcel of land allegedly outside the Puguis communal forest, claimed it is best for the public to refrain from buying parcels of land in the area and for those who have already started advancing some payments to stop giving additional money to those who sold to them the said parcels of land until such time that all the issues affecting the property shall have been resolved.
Tolding alleged the special power of attorney (SPA) and other pertinent documents issued by Evaristo Tio-tioen to a certain Manuel Mathias were already revoked, thus, all transactions entered into by the latter, particularly the sale of parcels of land in the area, are no longer valid.
“We have a standing agreement in the barangay for us to have a relocation survey in the disputed property but he (Mathias) had repeatedly failed to appear during the scheduled survey thereby leaving the issue hanging,” Tolding stressed.
He is wondering why Mathias refuses to appear with his surveyor in the scheduled joint relocation surveys, when in fact, it was their common agreement to have a joint relocation survey to put an end to the said issue at hand.
He accused Mathias of allegedly using armed men belonging to the defunct Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA) to allegedly harass his fellow land owners in the area that led to the reported fencing of a huge portion of the land owned by several title holders including his own property.
Last Saturday, a brewing tension between the alleged land claimants and government officials erupted in the area after unscrupulous squatters allegedly destroyed the steel gates installed by the government agencies and the municipal government to protect the communal forest from being intruded.
Todling warned the public that they will just be wasting their money if they continue to buy parcels of land in the Puguis area from alleged unscrupulous land owners because they will end up having a feud with other legitimate land owners in the area and even the government claiming that the properties they bought are part of the communal watershed, thus, the need for them to be circumspect in buying parcels of lands being offered to them for purchase.
He pointed out some of the titles in the possession of some land owners have decree numbers but they do not have duly registered title numbers and without pertinent records with the Registry of Deeds, thus, the public must be extra careful when offered titled properties to buy and that it would be best for them to first verify the titles with the relevant government offices before fully paying whatever parcels of lands that are being sold to them.
Tolding challenged other land owners to allow the conduct of a joint relocation survey in their properties to ascertain their boundaries so that no one will intrude in the property of another using purported titles without pertinent records with concerned government agencies to mislead the people and armed men to sow fear among them. By
HENT
