COA starts new evaluation of Boracay Mansion

The Commission on Audit will start re-evaluating the Boracay mansion, one of the pieces of property forfeited as part of the ill-gotten wealth of deposed President Joseph Estrada, based on new documents submitted by the Land Registration Authority last February 1. Edgardo Urieta, chief of the Sandiganbayan Sheriff and Security Services Office, said the LRA has acquired original survey maps of the Boracay mansion located in New Manila, Quezon City including one dating back to 1951 when the area was part of the so-called Magdalena Estate. The maps contain a complete description of the boundaries of the Boracay property along with those of adjacent lots, which can be used as reference in case of uncertainty. The graft court obtained the documents from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources with the help of LRA administrator Benedicto Ulep. “We will submit these new documents to engineer Jose Damole, chief of COA’s Property Disposal Evaluation and Research Division, so they can begin assessing how much the Boracay Mansion should be sold on public auction. Hopefully, these old survey maps would give them enough basis," Urieta said. COA earlier notified the court that it was unable to determine the fair market price of the Boracay property because the land titles found in the Registry of Deeds of Quezon City bore inaccuracies. Sandiganbayan sought COA’s help to make sure that the Boracay property is sold at the maximum price possible and prevent suspicions of irregularity in the transaction. The property was identified by the court for confiscation by the State following Estrada’s conviction of plunder last September 12. Based on the court verdict, the Boracay mansion was acquired for P142 million traceable to the Jose Velarde account at Equitable-PCI Bank, which the Sandiganbayan pronounced to be beneficially owned by Estrada. Prosecutors said the account contained P3.2 billion at one time although the graft court held that only P545.3 million consisting of payola from jueteng operators and another P189.7 million paid as commission on the purchase of Belle Corporation shares by the SSS and GSIS may be considered ‘ill-gotten wealth’ based on evidence. - GMANews.TV