By Jennifer P. Rendon
Four persons, including a lawyer, were arrested for allegedly selling a piece of land that none of them owned.
Collared were Norberto Oñas, 63, and his brother, Edgar Oñas, 61, both residents of Barangay Sta. Ana, Estancia, Iloilo; Marybeth Gadia, 37, of Barangay Camambogan, Balasan, Iloilo; and a lawyer.
Members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG)-Iloilo Field Unit, together with the Iloilo City Police Station and the Regional Mobile Force Battalion 6 (RFMB-6)’s 602nd Company, arrested the suspects in an entrapment operation at a restaurant inside a mall in Mandurriao, Iloilo City at around 11 am Monday.
Major Jess Baylon, CIDG – IFU chief, said the Oñas brothers allegedly posed as landowners while Gadia was their agent/broker.
The lawyer, on the other hand, allegedly facilitated the documentation, Baylon added.
Baylon said they launched the operation following the complaint lodged by Paul Leonidas, also a resident of Estancia town.
Leonidas claimed that he owned the parcel of land being sold by the Oñas brothers.
“They presented fake documents to their buyers,” Baylon said.
An undercover policeman served as the poseur buyer for a 1.5-hectare of lot in Estancia for P32 million.
During the operation, police recovered an acknowledgement receipt signed by the four suspects; a proposal for residential lot; a proposal for commercial lot; a bundle of P200,000 but with only six P1,000 bills as genuine; two bundles of P500,000 with only two P1,000 bills as genuine; P4 million with only five P1,000 bills as genuine; and several other documents.
Baylon said the four suspects might face a case for estafa or swindling under Article 315 of the Revised Penal Code.
Baylon said there could be other landowners who might formally lodge a complaint against the suspects.
The suspects allegedly sold lands under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The sale was even posted on Facebook.
The alleged owners presented a photocopy of certificates of land ownership award (CLOA) to their supposed buyers.
“The real victims here are the buyers who already paid for a property that couldn’t be titled to them,” Baylon said.
It can be noted that the Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOA) cannot be alienated or sold to any other person.
Within the restricted 10-year period, the beneficiaries cannot dispose the land, which actually were titled under CLOA.
Selling the CLOA to a developer or private citizen without the permission of DAR is considered unlawful and illegal.
