BAGUIO CITY – The local legislative body gave a last chance to the head of the city’s Registry of Deeds to appear before its regular session on Monday, 13 May 2018 to shed light on the complaints of the transacting public regarding alleged corruption activities inside his office.
Registry of Deeds head lawyer Rodil A. Rivera informed the local legislators he was not able to attend the council’s regular session last Monday because he was allegedly assisting the office of the Solicitor-General in various land cases in the city and demanded that he will be provided with a copy of the formal complaint regarding the issues raised by the concerned citizens on alleged corruption activities in the said office for him to respond to the matter.
The local legislative body requested lawyer Frisco Domalsin to execute an affidavit regarding his complaint on the alleged refusal of Rivera to release the reported derivative titles of his client despite having submitted the complete requirements for the processing and eventual release of the same.
The council will send the required invitation to Rivera for him to appear during its upcoming regular session attaching the formal complaint and the minutes of its previous meeting containing the complaints of the concerned citizens aired during the session on the alleged deliberate delay in the release of their titles by the Registry of Deeds for still unknown reasons.
Local legislators claimed once the concerned official will again snub the invitation, appropriate steps will be taken against him as he has been given a fair chance to explain before the council the allegations against him in observance of due process but he had repeatedly failed to appear and confront his accusers.
Some local legislators are contemplating allegedly on declaring Rivera as persona non grata in the city while other local legislators are proposing that the issues raised by the complainants be transited to the different investigating agencies for a full blown investigation to uncover reported rampant corruption activities by some officials and employees of the city’s Registry of Deeds.
Some of the complainants also referred their complaints to the Presidential Action Center in Manila while other potential complainants are simply awaiting the formal appearance of the Registry of Deeds head before the local legislative body to confront him about his alleged self-imposed collection of a certain amount of money prior to the release of their titles.
Other complainants claimed that some of the victims of the alleged extortion activities in the said office were allegedly suffering from life-threatening illnesses that is why they were constrained to bargain for the reduction of the huge amount being collected from them but it took them sometime before they were given a positive answer. By Dexter A. See
