A TOTAL of 11-hectare illegally titled lands can now be claimed by the Davao City after the council approved an ordinance allowing the city mayor to file charges against private individuals who successfully titled and surveyed government-owned lots.
Committee chair of city-owned properties Bonifacio Militar, during the Pulong-Pulong ni Pulong media forum held last Tuesday, June 27, at the City Council Building, said that through this ordinance the city can file proper charges for cancellation of titles and approved surveys and application for special patent.
“The names of those individuals who successfully secured titles in the property owned by the city are attached to our resolution ordinance,” he said.
Militar said nine individuals were on the list.
Militar said that a total of 105 hectares of land were granted to the city of Davao for future, use such as for tourism zone, through a Presidential proclamation and out of these, 11 hectares were transferred to individuals. Other pieces of land granted under the same proclamation are still up for survey.
He added that aside from the authority given by the mayor, the City Council also approved his proposed ordinance which gave exemption to tax real properties that are donated to the City Government of Davao.
“Real properties donated to the city, more than 120 [of it], are accepted by the city but the problem is the donor of the lands did not pay the corresponding real property tax, therefore the transfer of title in the name of the city cannot be made because of the non-payment of real property tax. So what I did, I make an ordinance requesting the city mayor to give an exemption to those properties donated to the city which were not transferred to the city [yet],” he said.
He said that that the lots are under the responsibility of the city because of the deed of donation.
He added that the city treasurer will not allow the transfer of the properties without paying the corresponding real property taxes on the donated properties.
“I hope the title of these properties will be ultimately transferred to the name of the city,” Militar said.