QC steps up drive vs fake land titles

Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. directed yesterday the city’s assessor’s office to coordinate with the Register of Deeds and the Land Registration Authority for the immediate reconciliation and updating of all records as part of the city government’s effort to combat the proliferation of fake land titles and squatting.

In a directive to city assessor Teofista Pajara, the mayor said the city assessor’s office should not only coordinate with the LRA but also work out a proposed ordinance that would compel owners of newly acquired land to register their property within 60 days after acquisition.

Belmonte said the proposed measure will not only address the problem of fake tiles, but will also expand the tax base of the city government.

He said the problem of land titles worsened after thousands of documents were destroyed in a fire that hit the city hall building in 1988. Several individuals and groups have been added to the long list of land claimants.

"Something must be done to abate the situation. The delay on the part of the transfer of land ownership only gives chance to unscrupulous people to conduct their nefarious activities here," the mayor said.

He also cited the long and tedious process in reconstituting land titles being undertaken by the LRA and the city’s land titling unit as a result of the legal requirements needed aside from the tax declaration.

Of the more than 80,000 destroyed lands tiles in 1988, only 40,000 have been reconstituted. Some of them have yet to be claimed.

Belmonte has been calling on land owners, whose land titles were among those destroyed by fire, to claim their newly reconstructed tiles at the Registry of Deed or at the LRA building along EDSA in Quezon City or at the land tilling unit at the Quezon City Hall during office hours.