SHAI down, what about NOVAI?

It’s taken a long time, perhaps too long, but the Supreme Court has finally invalidated a spurious certificate of title issued over 40 hectares of prime land in Fort Bonifacio, which certain retired and active military officers had claimed as their own property. The supposed owner on record was the Southside Homeowners Association, Inc. (SHAI), composed of wives of the aforesaid retired and active officers.

There is another similar case, involving the same Lands Management Bureau official who claims his signature was forged in a spurious deed of sale which covers a bigger area of 47 hectares, also in Fort Bonifacio. The purported owner of this prime land this time is another association of naval officers who organized the Navy Officers Village Association, Inc. (NOVAI). This association too managed to obtain title to that property.

As explained in detail in our series of columns in late 2004, both transactions occurred at about the same time the SHAI deed of sale was executed in October 1991 while the NOVAI deed was signed November of that year. Both deeds were supposedly executed by then LMB director Abelardo Palad, the same gentleman who claimed in court (in vain, evidently) that his signatures on both documents were forged.

The TCTs over the two properties – SHAI’s located behind Forbes Park, and NOVAI’s situated adjacent to Dasmarinas Village – were issued by then Pasig Register of Deeds Vicente Garcia.

In 1993, the government, pursuant to the order of then President Fidel V. Ramos, sought cancellation of both titles. However, the Pasig Regional Trial Court ruled in favor of the military officers in both SHAI and NOVAI cases.

The SHAI case was appealed to the Court of Appeals, which upheld the trial court’s decision. The government then went up to the Supreme Court, which ruled last week in favor of the government. The NOVAI case has also been appealed to the Court of Appeals where, we’ve been told, the matter has been deemed submitted for decision.

If, despite the SHAI decision, the CA takes the unlikely step of upholding the Pasig RTC’s decision on NOVAI, the matter can be expected to also reach the SC. The findings of the High Court in the SHAI case, particularly on the faked deed of sale, would seem to apply to the NOVAI case as well. But that’s up to the CA and, of course, the SC.

It might be noted that, in the SHAI case, the Supreme Court ruled that the claimants were unable to prove that the property involved had been excluded by any Presidential Proclamation from public lands reserved for military reservations, and were thus available for sale to private parties.

In the NOVAI case, it was alleged that a specific Presidential Proclamation covering the disputed property had been issued by then President Corazon Aquino. However, then Executive Secretary Frank Drilon denied before the Pasig court that any such Proclamation had been issued. Malacanang officials further testified that there was no record of the Proclamation alleged by NOVAI. In fact, the claimed number of that Aquino Proclamation was way in excess of the total number issued by her. Still, the Pasig RTC ruled in favor of NOVAI.

In the SHAI case, the parties apparently agreed to limit the issues to whether the deed of sale was in fact a forgery. The Supreme Court, nevertheless, looked at other issues, including the inalienable character of the disputed land and the alleged failure to pay the agreed consideration for the property. On all these issues, the Court decided against SHAI and in favor of government.

In the NOVAI case, there are other issues such as the alleged failure of NOVAI to pay ANY of the agreed compensation which, at P30 per square meter, was niggardly at best, even on the basis of prevailing real estate prices in the area in 1991.

In its report of October 17, 2003, a fact-finding commission tasked to look into the Oakwood incident, chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice Florentino P. Feliciano, examined the SHAI and NOVAI transactions in some detail and concluded: "The extent of the misappropriation of Fort Bonifacio land with which the Government has...charged senior military officers, is so epic in scale as to make the overpricing of land uncovered by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee...in the two hundred forty (240) RSBS cases (P703 million) seem like petty shoplifting in comparison." (Itals. ours)

The Bases Conversion Development Authority estimated in 2003 that if the properties could be recovered and sold at then prevailing market prices of P30,000 per square meter, the government could realize net proceeds of P24.6 billion! In November 2004, Defense Secretary Nonong Cruz declared that the price had gone up to P40,000 per square meter, or P35 billion for all 87 hectares of disputed property. Today, almost two years after, with developments at Fort Bonifacio, that estimate has probably gone stale.

Secretary Cruz’s anxiety is understandable. At his recent speech before the Manila Overseas Press Club, Nonong unveiled an 18-year horizon (!) for the acquisition of "mission-specific" equipment. Nonong made clear he would like to do things faster, including buying night-flying helicopters to enable night-time operations and provide timely evacuation for casualties, as well as upgraded field hospitals.

The problem is, yet again, money since the "modernization fund" provided by law incident to the privatization of Fort Bonifacio, was diverted to a segregated "special account" in the "general fund" of the government. Disbursements from that fund, which must be covered by the annual appropriations act, must compete with priority and other budgetary requirements of government. As a consequence, modernization has been relegated to some forgotten back-burner.

Secretary Cruz says he’s been "promised" P10 billion a year by the GMA administration to fund his "rationalized" acquisition program. As the Three Stooges might say, rotsa ruck! But a statutory 30% share of the net proceeds from the sale of the SHAI and NOVAI properties would come to over P10 billion, an excellent jump-start for modernization. If GMA adds the P10 billion she allegedly committed, well now, maybe we can start getting serious about modernization.

Our Supreme Court noted in the SHAI case that the scam "could not have to come to pass without the participation of a cabal of cheats out to make a dishonest buck at the expense of government..." Hallelujah! The Court seems more on the ball than lower courts which appeared clueless about what really happened.