GMA wants fake land titling scam busted

President Arroyo enlisted the help yesterday of Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to help bust the syndicate behind fake land titling at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which allegedly entitles private individuals to land owned by the government at the La Mesa Dam area.

The President also announced to some 3,000 squatter families in Barangay North Fairview, Quezon City that they will be given land tenure once the portion of government land at the La Mesa Dam area is recovered from the fake land titling syndicate.

Mrs. Arroyo disclosed she has already contacted Environment Secretary Elisea Gozun to whom Belmonte will submit documents to prove that land titles to that specific portion of the La Mesa Dam were forged.

Belmonte, whom Mrs. Arroyo called anew as "the most outstanding mayor in the Philippines," asked the President for assistance in providing socialized housing, specifically to nearby government lands located across the La Mesa Dam, in the relocation of squatter residents in Barangay North Fairview.

"If the lands belong to government then all of you will have a place to be relocated to on the other side of the La Mesa Dam)," Mrs. Arroyo told residents during a visit yesterday. "We are doing this for you because I know you want to live in your own homes."

Belmonte accompanied the President when she motored to the squatter colony in Barangay North Fairview to bring her administration’s project dubbed as "Patubig ni Gloria," wherein seven water trucks daily deliver clean potable drinking water to residents in the depressed area.

Speaking extemporaneously in Tagalog, Mrs. Arroyo assured residents the water delivery is free.

The project, jointly undertaken by the state-run Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and Maynilad Water, will continue until the area obtains water connection to get their water supply from Maynilad.

The President, however, informed residents that given the existing problem over land titling, water connection has been stalled due to legal questions concerning "right-of-way" by "private homeowners on record" which should pave the way for the construction of both water and electricity connection.