This week, Baguio’s City Council passed a resolution urging government investigative authorities to probe the Bagong Lahing Pilipinas (BLP) Cooperative for allegedly selling fake and fraudulent land titles to unsuspecting buyers.
During the session on Tuesday, February 12, the council engaged with BLP’s vice-president, known under the alias Jovito Salonga, who asserted that they are authorized to sell ancestral land titles under Presidential Decree 1529 and the Land Registration Act. Salonga claimed that BLP obtained authority through the implementation of the Torrens System during the American regime.
Under the Torrens system, titles are considered valid without the need for a chain of title, tracing back the transfers a title undergoes throughout time in documentation and writing.
However, the City Council disputes the legitimacy of these titles, asserting that titles acquired through judicial procedures cannot be valid. They highlight that judicial titling in the city is no longer applicable due to the declaration that all portions of Baguio City, except private lands, are part of the Baguio Townsite Reservation.
Vice Mayor Faustino Olowan emphasized that Miscellaneous Sales Application (MSA), Townsite Sales Application (TSA), free patent application, and, for ancestral lands, certification through the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), are the only remaining ways to acquire land titles in Baguio City.
Due to numerous questionable details regarding BLP’s operations, the council issued a resolution requesting the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate BLP. They also seek assistance from the NCIP and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
In 2019, the NCIP Cordillera office had traced a fake, fraudulent title to a certain Ang Bagong Lahing Pilipino Multi-Purpose Cooperative, a registered cooperative under the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA). However, the cooperative was allegedly suspended due to an unresolved 2017 show cause order from the CDA.
Even earlier, in 2015, an organization named Ang Bagong Lahing Filipino Development Foundation Inc., specializing in providing land titles and possessory documents, was flagged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in an advisory for not being registered with the Commission.
