The Guinayangan Republic

Police said they busted the operations of a big-time professional land grabbing and squatting syndicate planning to dupe thousands of landless residents in Guinayangan, Quezon, some 255 km south of Manila.
In a report submitted Aug. 12 to the Quezon police headquarters here in Camp Nakar, Insp. Moreno Batibot, Guinayangan police chief, identified the syndicate as the Wilfredo Sumulong Torres group, known in national police files as one of the biggest gangs of professional land grabbers in the country.
Reports said one Andree Lagdameo, owner of a parcel of land in the village of Calimpak, filed a complaint at the local police station about unidentified persons who illegally installed several billboards inside her lot.
Lagdameo presented TCT-T-3020 registered under the name of the late Adela and Aurora Lagdameo as proof that her family owns the piece of property.
The billboard reads: ?No Trespassing Private Property, Pinagcamaligan Indo-Agro Development Corp. (Piadeco), Supreme Court decision in Civil Case No. 3035-M promulgated June 28, 1968.?
Police invited for questioning brothers Jim and Bayani Montalbo, residents of Sariaya, Quezon, who were tagged by residents as the ones who put up the billboards.
The two introduced themselves as representatives of Piadeco with offices at Rm. 205 Cabrera II Bldg. No. 64, Timog Avenue, Quezon City.
Police said Bayani has also been introducing himself in the area as an official from the Ombudsman?s office.
Authorities found that the two have distributed a so-called ?Certificate of Occupancy? to at least seven families residing inside Lagdameo?s property in exchange for P2,500 supposedly as processing fee for a home lot.
The certificate was signed by Wilfredo Sumulong Torres as Piadeco chair and the Montalbo brothers as area coordinator and control officer.
In a phone interview, Calimpak village chieftain Recy Villanueva also disclosed that Balbino Virtucio, one of her barangay policemen, was also fooled by the syndicate and had already handed more than P100,000 to the Montalbos in exchange for the right to own at least 11 hectares of land in Guinayangan.
Reports said the Montalbos claimed that the entire Guinayangan town, which has a total land area of 22,800 hectares, is part of the huge property of Piadeco under an ancient title.
Police said the two vouched for the legality of the Spanish title based on an alleged Supreme Court decision on June 28, 1968.
However, Lagdameo, who has been helping the police gather evidence against the syndicate, managed to secure a certified photocopy of a Supreme Court decision on Dec. 18, 1996 that had declared ?Titulo de Propriedad Nos. 4136? as ?null and void.?
Lagdameo also found that Piadeco was not a listed company at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
?We believe that we have successfully foiled the plan of the syndicate to deceive thousands of unwary landless residents of Guinayangan,? Batibot said.
He said they were forced to release the Montalbo brothers due to the absence of criminal charges against the two.
Lagdameo said she also reported the case to the Camp Crame-based Anti-Squatting Task Force and the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council for proper action against the syndicate.
It was learned that Torres is also allegedly the subject of a police investigation over charges of large-scale estafa and land grabbing involving huge tracts of land in the provinces of Bulacan and Rizal.  

Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon