QC land row snags judge, LRA chief
An ownership battle over seven-hectare vacant property behind St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City has engulfed Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Edgardo Bellosillo and the chief of the Land Registration Authority, Renato Bermejo.
According to the grapevine, real estate firm Titan Dragon has filed a criminal and administrative complaint against Bermejo and the Quezon City Register of Deeds, Sedfrey Garcia, for having cancelled the title to the P2-billion property that Titan Dragon had acquired, taken possession, and paid taxes since it had won a 1997 bidding by the Development Bank of the Philippines.
What happened in between is Exhibit A on how sharp operators, with a little help from well-placed friends, can exploit the judicial loopholes and regulatory cracks involving the country’s creaky land titling system.
A short explanation to this mess is that Judge Bellosillo, acting on a specific performance complaint from one Martina VelosoGalenzoga and counselled by anti-PDAF lawyer Levito Baligod, effectively foreclosed the property without the owner-occupant ever participating in the litigation.
This was how Veloso-Galenzoga, from Baybay, Leyte, built her stake.
Veloso-Galenzoga paid the real property taxes on the property, on the strength of an alleged Deed of Sale with Titan Dragon. She also claimed that Titan Dragon never delivered the property despite her having paid the P60 million “purchase” price in 1997.
With these documents, plus the fact that Titan Dragon did not answer the court’s summons and could not be located by the sheriff, Judge Bellosillo foreclosed and awarded the now worth P2-billion property to Veloso-Galenzoga. Bellosillo
Mortified of the impending loss of its crown jewel, Titan Dragon, owned by a certain Nelson Chua originally of Cavite, dropped its inhouse counsel, Rey Melendres, and brought in the big guns, Accra and Villaraza & Angangco.
This was what the two blue-chip law firms belatedly foundout: In addition to the fake Deed of Sale, the court summons and sheriff’s orders had been served on a non-existent office address at PBCom building in Makati, when Titan Dragon’s office was then in Cavite and, now, in the disputed QC site itself.
Another finding: The Quezon City Treasurer’s Office had been accepting the real estate payments of Veloso-Galenzoga, despite Titan Dragon’s payments. In other words, the Quezon City Treasurer’s Office had effectively been taking double payments for the disputed property.
Despite, or probably because of, the petition for certiorari filed with the Supreme Court by the new Titan Dragon lawyers, Judge Bellosillo threatened to cite for contempt the Register of Deeds why he had not issued a new title to Veloso-Galenzoga.
To comply with the judge’s order, the Land Registration Authority executed a prohibited manual interference on the computerized system of the Torrens registration system.
More of this bizarre saga in another installment.
Jollibee co-founder Ang Cho Sit apparently is not done yet with his stock disposals that saw him monetizing over P800 million of Jollibee shares late last year.
The brother-in-law of Jollibee chairman Tony Tan Caktiong, Ang started the new year by cashing out nearly P95 million worth of Jollibee shares last week.
Ang represents two corporate shareholders within the country’s largest food chain, whose combined shareholdings within Jollibee still amount to about P5 billion.
Meanwhile, Jollibee chief marketing officer Daniel Rafael Gomez III also had some cash to start the year right.
According to regulatory disclosures, Gomez on Jan. 15 flipped 55,000 stock options at P260 each, nearly thrice his same-day acquisition cost of P89.90.
The following day, Gomez sold 150,000 more shares at P275 a piece, a P170 markup from the P105 incentive price he had to pay on the same day for the same shares.
Before that, Gomez also made sure he had a few millions jingling in his pocket for the new year.
On Dec. 29, Gomez also acquired, through the stock option program, 29,000 Jollibee shares at P57.77, which he promptly disposed on the same and last trading day of the year for P257 each.
• The Casa Armas restaurant in Greenbelt 2, the last of the franchised branches, closed last week, leaving the original Spanish tapas bar and restaurant in Malate as the lone store standing.
• The Manila Polo Club is calling for another townhall meeting this Friday to discuss the fate and possible redevelopment of the adjoining townhouses, given that their 25-year lease will expire this July.
In addition to their Forbes Park address, the 36 townhouses are prized for their unobstructed view of the polo field and their access to the tree-lined jogging oval.
Not satisfied with the Philippines ending last year with 21 national government holidays, the most ever in recent history, four Senate committees will deliberate this week on a proposal by JV Ejercito to grant 15 leave days a year with full pay to “legitimate spouses” of overseas workers in the private and public sector.
In addition, another Senate bill, filed by Ralph Recto, seeks to grant employees an extra three days paid leave a year to attend school-related activities of their children.
E-mail: moneygoround.manila@yahoo.com