House to deepen probe on land transactions
THE chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts said that it would “deepen” the investigation of several anomalous land transactions entered by local government executives in different municipalities in the country.
Abang Lingkod Party-list Rep. Joseph Stephen ‘’Caraps’’ Paduano added that there could be more alleged irregularities and anomalies in real estate transactions across the country following their ongoing investigation into several real estate transactions in San Simon, Pampanga.
The investigation came from allegations contained in House Resolution 1503 filed by Senior Citizens Party-list Rep. Rodolfo Ordañes, which sought to investigate the actions of San Simon Mayor Abundio Punsalan Jr. and several members of the municipal council.
Among the allegations raised by Ordañes include the highly irregular reclassification of 1.4 hectares of agricultural land into industrial land, the cancelation of the procurement for a bridge project without first canceling the signed contract of a winning bidder, the reported illegal use and disbursement of P45 million in public funds to purchase land for the expansion of the municipal hall, and using a falsified municipal council resolution to collect P5 million from a corporation representing regulatory fees.
During the committee hearing on Wednesday, Paduano said that the investigation has unearthed details of the properties being bought by the municipality of San Simon and the reclassification ordinance being given to some companies and individual titleholders.
He added that other towns in the country may be following San Simon’s lead, which prompted their investigation.
“We will look deeper into this, because we cannot allow these things to happen in these municipalities in Pampanga and other parts of the country. We begin here, but sooner or later, we will look at municipalities and other regions and investigate them,” Paduano said.
He also said that it is troubling to hear allegations that the municipality was dealing with foreign nationals posing as Filipino nationals with fake Philippine passports.
“And we will go deeper into this. Because there is a possibility that all warehouses owned by Filipino citizens and Filipino corporations might be owned by foreign nationals in San Simon, just like what happened in Mexico, Pampanga,” Paduano said.
Last year, his committee investigated anomalous land deals in Mexico, Pampanga, where its local government unit entered transactions with a foreigner named Aedy Tai Yang that he believed were questionable in nature.
The hearing uncovered that Yang would purchase hectares of land at P300 per square meter and sell it to the LGU at nine to ten times the price.
The constitution prohibits foreigners from owning lands in the country.
“As of now, it was already established in Mexico, Pampanga. We want to know and clarify if the same thing is also happening in San Simon. And I do believe, and I have initial information on this, that this is happening in every part of the country. We should not allow this to happen,” Paduano said.