BCDA wins court case against claimant of Fort Stotsenburg property

The Bases Conversion and Development Authority said on Tuesday it has scored a legal victory against the claimant of a property that forms part of the former Fort Stotsenburg Military Reservation in Angeles City, Pampanga. In a letter to BCDA president and chief executive Arnel Casanova, government corporate counsel Raoul Creencia said that Angeles City Regional Trial Court Branch 58 has ordered the cancellation of a land title erroneously issued to a certain Consorcia M. Bontuyan, paving the way for the return of the property to the state-run agency. In his 16-page decision, Judge Philbert Iturralde ruled null and void ab initio — that is, that it has had no validity at any time — the Original Certificate of Title (OCT) No. 1 registered in the name of Bontuyan, and directed the latter to surrender the same with the Register of Deeds of Angeles City for subsequent cancellation. Casanova hailed the court order, saying it will enable the BCDA’s full development of the property and adjoining areas in Clark consistent with the Clark Special Economic Zone master plan. BCDA's victory came on the heels of its intensified efforts to prosecute land-grabbing syndicates who have laid claim to government properties under BCDA’s stewardship. “We are sending a strong message to those who have and plan to claim government property as their own, we will use the full extent of the law to get our properties back,” Casanova said in a statement. The Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer who was cited as a co- respondent in the case filed by the BCDA was likewise instructed to revoke the free patent issued to Bontuyan in 1996. The local Register of Deeds was ordered to initiate the cancellation process of Bontuyan’s OCT and all other land titles emanating from it. BCDA said the Court also ordered Bontuyan to vacate the property and desist from exercising acts of ownership of the land. Fort Stotsenburg is in Barrio Sapang Bato, Angeles City, some 80 kilometers north of Manila. — BM, GMA News