CA voids titles of Navy retirees to Bonifacio land

Decision paves way for possible eviction

By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 01:03pm (Mla time) 01/11/2007

MANILA -- THE COURT of Appeals has declared "null and void" the land titles to a 47.5-hectare prime property at the Bonifacio Naval Station (BNS) inside Fort Bonifacio which is being claimed by a group of retired navy officers, setting the stage for their possible eviction.

In a 47-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Renato Dacudao and dated December 28, 2006, the appellate court reversed an August 20, 2004 decision by Pasig City Regional Trial Court branch 67, which upheld the claim of the Navy Officers Village Association Inc. (NOVAI) to the prime property.

The court also ordered the NOVAI to surrender their land titles to the Pasig City Register of Deeds for cancellation.

Following the ruling, the Philippine Navy will ask a Makati City court to lift a permanent injunction that 17 NOVAI members secured to stop the eviction, Navy spokesman Giovanni Carlo Bacrodo said in a statement Thursday.

"The decision of the CA [Court of Appeals] has upheld the Navy's right over the land and housing facilities inside Fort Bonifacio…The Navy leadership also calls on the 17 overstaying occupants at the Navy village to vacate their quarters voluntarily to give way to active personnel," Bacordo said.

On May 20, 2005, the Navy evicted 56 NOVAI members not covered by the permanent injunction from the disputed housing. Tension gripped the eviction and Bacordo, at one point, had to kick open the door of one of the occupants, retired colonel Pablo Viray.

In its decision, the appeals court said the NOVAI failed to disprove the Navy's claim that the disputed land is located inside a military reservation.

The court noted that a common exhibit of both parties, the Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT) for the land, states that it is "located inside Fort Bonifacio," which is a military reservation.

The NOVAI also failed to prove the existence of Proclamation 2478, allegedly issued by former president Corazon Aquino on September 25, 1991, which they claimed authorized the "transfer and titling" of the land to them from the Veterans' Rehabilitation, Medicare and Training Center.

"To be sure, the existence of Presidential Proclamation No. 2487 could easily be proved, and established, by its publication in the Official Gazette. But the defendant-appellee could not, as it did not, submit or present any copy or issue of the Official Gazette mentioning or referring to this Presidential Proclamation No. 2487…" the court said.

The court also sided with the Navy's claim that the signature of Pasig City Land Management Bureau (LMB) director Abelardo Palad Jr., who supposedly executed the deed of sale of the land to the NOVAI on November 15, 1991, was forged.

The court noted that when shown the deed of sale during a hearing, Palad only said that the signature on it had a "resemblance" to his signature. The court said "resemblance is nowhere nearly the equivalent of authenticity or genuineness."

Moreover, a handwriting expert from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Eliodoro Constantino, testified that Palad's alleged signature on the deed of sale was a "traced forgery" or a "carbon outline" when viewed under a microscope.

"In addition, the dubiousness of the questioned deed of sale is reinforced by nearly conclusive evidence that the defendant-appellee did not go through the normal or regular process in the DENR [Department of Environment and Natural Resources], nor in the LMB, in the filing of an application, in the conduct of a survey, and in the undertaking of an investigation, among others," the court said.

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