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By Ric R. Puod
and Annie Ruth C. Sabangan, Senior Reporters
(First of 5 parts)
Fortune gives many too much, but none enough.
—Martial, Epigrams
It takes two to tango, but Sen. Loren Legarda
may not dance with her husband when it comes to his businesses—and
his allegedly questionable activities. The senator, who is running
as vice president of Fernando Poe Jr., said: “Walang kama
kamag-anak,” echoing a statement made by Poe’s buddy, Joseph
Estrada. Her antinepotism stance, however, could be put to the test
if the government seriously takes up her challenge: “Sue him, and
I won’t lift a finger to help him.”
This is all because Jose Antonio Leviste, the
former Batangas governor, has acquired a group of inalienable
islands that must remain under government control.
Legarda is beneficiary to these conjugal
properties that, in many ways, raise questions of irregularities.
These include the Lorelei 1 (Pulong Calayo), Lorelei 2 (Punta Fuego
Point), Twin Island (Pulong Kutad), Isla Punta Buri and Pulong
Mugiw, all in Nasugbu, Batangas.
These islands dot the Nasugbu coastal territory
which many rich and famous, including high-ranking government
officials, have also encroached on. “Nasakop na ni Leviste halos
lahat ng mga isla dito,” said a fisherman, Mang Benito, who lives
in Barangay Calayo, 13 kilometers from Barangay Wawa, where many
residents corroborated his statement.
Residents of Barangays Wawa and Calayo said they
saw Leviste visit these islands on his speedboat. He had the islands
guarded and built structures that marked his ownership of them.
“Hindi ka basta makakapasok dyan, kasi may mga gwardya na,” Mang
Benito said. He knew this because he had worked with Ayed Lou,
believed to be a Pakistani. Resort owners and caretakers on Beach
Road in Barangay Wawa said Lou was a former Leviste caretaker in
Matabungkay beach resort in Lian, Batangas.
Lou now manages Leviste’s Maligaya beach
resort in Wawa. He sometimes hires workers (mostly fishermen) for
some of the couple’s construction projects on the islands. “Alam
mo ako ay trabahador dyan…kay Ma’am Loren ’yang Lorelei 1 eh.
Merong waterway dyan. Kasama akong gumawa ng tulay doon.” He said
Legarda was satisfied with their work and recalled her as telling
Lou: “It’s very good. I like this.” Lorelei 1, or Loren’s
Little Enchanted Island, is under the name of Pag-Asa Sales, Inc., a
company owned by the senator’s parents, Antonio and Bessie
Legarda.
Lorelei 1 (Pulong Calayo) is about eight
hectares, noted a Calayo fisherman, a close relative of Leviste’s
“dummy” when he acquired Fortune Island in 1982. “Kasama akong
nag sukat dyan noon ni Raul Bausas, ang geodetic engineer.”
Leviste also had a rest house built on this island for his
senator-wife. This was reportedly his gift to Legarda during their
first wedding anniversary, and also her favorite vacation place.
Legarda’s two-story rest house on this island
has a floor area of about 50 square meters. It has a cogon roof and
its interior is said to be luxurious. “’Yong loob ng kwarto niya
[Loren], para bagang garden. Nakapalibot ang mga halaman. Sabi ko
pamprinsesa ito syempre.” Joel, a 28-year-old diver who sometimes
did menial jobs on Fortune Island, said Lorelei 1 also has a
generator and a guardhouse.
Greater power
Leviste’s acquisition of Lorelei 1 was marred
by a legal battle against a ship captain. Justo Padre, now very
sickly, can no longer speak, and is staffed with nurses in his
condominium in Makati. Padre owns a small nautical school and huge
real-estate properties in Nasugbu.
“Noong namalayan ni Leviste na dini-develop na
ito ni Kapitan Padre, saka niya ito pinasukan sa pamamagitan ni
Isidro Derain,” recalled Alberto Inumerable, 68, Wawa barangay
treasurer and president of its neighborhood association in Sitio
Ilog. This area and its neighboring Sitio Ibayo have been declared
by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources an accretion
of the Lico River. Here also is the office of the Fortune Island
Resort Club.
Derain was not only a barangay captain of
Calayo. He was also a trusted and important ally of Leviste. Calayo
residents said they had even witnessed Derain being flown home many
times by Leviste’s helicopter.
“Pinormahan ’yan [Lorelei 1] ng pinormahan
ni Leviste, tapos inasunto niya si Padre,” Inumerable said. He
sent soldiers to eject Padre’s men who were stationed there, the
same sources close to the Padre family said. Soldiers ferried back
to the nautical school Padre’s men—students whom he also made to
work on his nearby Isla Berlonggo, also in Barangay Calayo.
Leviste’s legal battle against Padre also
concerned the three-hectare Twin Island. But greater power, money
and influence were in Leviste’s hands. Thus, although the case was
still under litigation he managed to make his way into this
property. “Ang mga tauhan pa nga ni Kapitan Padre ang nakadiskubre
ng tubig tabang dyan,” sources said. “May tubig tabang dyan sa
gitna ng isla.”
They said the Twin Island case is still pending
before the Supreme Court, and that Padre is likely to lose or has
already lost the case. The Padres, locked in their own family feuds
over real-estate properties, businesses and other controversies,
declined to comment on the case. “Natalo si Kapitan Padre sa Twin
Island na ’yan,” Calayo and Wawa residents said.
The municipal government of Nasugbu has declared
Twin Island a marine sanctuary. But the local government is unable
to exercise its authority over that inalienable island, because a
private individual already controls it. “Practically everybody in
Nasugbu knows that Leviste controls it,” said municipal official
who asked not to be named.
Expanding his boundaries, Leviste extended his
power further through another island—the Punta Fuego Point, where
he had a concrete shed built. It has a brick roof that Mang Freddie,
another fisherman, also helped build. “’Yong nasa unahan na
iyan—’yong shed, kami ang gumawa niyan,” he said, pointing at
the shed as the boat sailed toward it. “May mga upuan dyan.
Inupahan kami ni Mr. Lou. Halos tatlong lingo naming ginawa
’yan.”
According to a municipal insider, the Landco, a
real-estate developer, initially considered the Punta Fuego Point,
also known as Lorelei 2, to be part of its tourism plan. But it
could not do so on learning that Leviste already owned it. The
island lies near the mainland Punta Fuego, where grandiose vacation
houses overlooking the sea line its very edge.
Although Isla Punta Buri, Pulong Kutad and
Pulong Mugiw remain undeveloped so far, fishermen of Wawa and Calayo
said these are already under Leviste’s control. What could be seen
on Isla Punta Buri is only a concrete structure that looked like a
guardhouse. Given what they said is his boundless interest in
acquiring islands, the fishermen have reasons to believe that
Leviste owns most of the islands in Nasugbu.
A resident of Sitio Ilog who has access to the
Nasugbu Register of Deeds said Leviste’s approach to titling the
islands was questionable. “He would recruit old and influential
people, a village chief for instance, who would later become the
island’s caretaker. Then he would hire workers to plant trees or
put up a landmark on the islands, he said.
Inumerable also explained that to effectively
acquire islands, rich people found it effective to use as fronts
local government officials. “Palakasan lang ’yan,” he said.
“Depende kung sino ang naka pwesto.”
Using their contacts from the local government,
assessor’s office and Bureau of Lands, these rich people would ask
them to prepare a survey plan that would become the basis for an
application of a free patent. “Sa ibang tao muna syempre
nakapangalan ang free patent,” he said. “Pag tumagal tagal
ibebenta na ’yan, magkakaroon na sila ng deed of sale para
mailipat sa pangalan niya ang dokumento ng isla.”
But fishermen said they need no legal documents
to know who actually own these properties. For them, their everyday
experiences and contacts with the islands’ caretakers are more
than enough warning that these are already private properties.
“’Yong mga caretakers na ang nasasabi sa amin na bawal nang
pumasok sa isla. Minsan, ang Coast Guard na mismo ang nagtataboy sa
aming lumapit sa mga islang ito,” they said.
Fortune Island
Fortune Island was said to be the first island
in Nasugbu that Leviste had acquired. It is a 27-hectare marine
reserve that lies about 14 kilometers off Nasugbu Bay. This island
is now parceled out into seven lots and reportedly titled in the
names of three companies: the Fortune Resort Club, Inc., the
Meridian Pacific Hotel Corp., and the Batangas Bay Development, Inc.
Leviste either holds majority stocks or has interests in these
companies.
DENR Southern Tagalog officials believe that
Leviste’s ownership of Fortune Island underwent “scheming
procedures” to acquire both judicial and administrative titles.
They said these tenurial instruments should not have been granted in
the first place, because the island is classified as a marine
reserve under Proclamation 1801, issued in 1978 by President Marcos.
But even without this proclamation, Fortune and the other islands
Leviste acquired remain inalienable under Presidential Decree 705,
or the Revised Forestry Code.
Section 16 of the code listed “areas less than
250 hectares which are far from, or are not contiguous with, any
certified alienable and disposable” as one of the “areas needed
for forest purposes and may not, therefore, be classified as
alienable and disposable land.” Fortune Island is 27 hectares,
already within China Sea and not close to any alienable and
disposable land. It is 14 km from the coastline of Nasugbu.
The Balayan Municipal Trial Court, which issued
in 1982 the land titles covering 15 hectares of Fortune Island, has
no jurisdiction over unclassified public forest. The same is true of
the Bureau of Lands, which was very well aware of its inalienable
status, when it released free patents covering the remaining 11
hectares of the island.
An official of the Nasugbu municipal government
said subdividing Fortune Island into lots was a “ploy” to skirt
environmental and other pertinent laws. “Maaring pinalabas na ang
Fortune ay hindi isla, kundi magkakatabing A&D lands na
hinati-hati,” he explained.
It appeared that legal maneuverings got into the
way in the applications of tenurial instruments granted to Fortune
Island. The approved plan (PSU-4A003955), which was used as the
basis for getting the titles, bore a note written below the left
corner of the document, which said: “This survey is inside 1801
dated November 120, 1978.” It also noted that the “survey is
inside unclassified public forest region….” By ignoring this, a
DENR official described it as a “glaring omission of facts.”
Still, Legarda in a recent interview, believes
no irregularity took place in acquiring Fortune Island. “It has a
clean title,” she insisted. “My husband owned that even before I
met him. So many other people own islands, so no problem with
that.”
Research and interviews done by The Times show
that the island remains unclassified to this date, and so, under the
law is considered a public forest. This means that the area cannot
be disposed of for other uses. No presidential proclamation or Act
of Congress so far supersedes Presidential Decree 1801 to legalize
Leviste’s claim of Fortune Island, DENR records show.
Under Presidential Decree 1586 of 1978, Fortune
Island is considered an environmentally critical area. Any
introduction of development on the island should not begin without
an environmental impact statement and an environmental compliance
certificate from the DENR. So far, the DENR has found no records of
the statement and the compliance certificate applied for by Fortune
Island.
Given these, it only shows that Leviste’s
claims to this island—and to other inalienable islands—are not
as solid as the structures he had built on them.
Yet he managed to wangle these small islands
while the government, especially the DENR, has taken decades of
silence over this case in Nasugbu. But Legarda said she is “not
answerable to anything he did before he met me,” because Leviste
owned [Fortune Island] long before he married her.
‘File a case, I won’t help him’
For Leviste or any private person to legally own
small islands, they need a presidential proclamation or an act of
Congress declaring such islands alienable and disposable—issued in
their favor. But such a move by the government would make the public
howl in protest over a legal bias for the privileged few, not to
mention its conflict with other environmental laws governing
inalienable lands that are strictly under government control.
Could Legarda, a senator and environmental
activist, afford to ignore environmental laws? Some of the bills she
either authored or coauthored were meant to protect environmentally
critical areas, whose condition is very similar to that of the small
islands her husband had questionably acquired.
But Legarda, who co-authored at least three laws
on environmental protection, among the Republic Act 8991 or the
Batanes Group of Islands Protected Area, said: “If there’s any
problem with the acquisition of property, why don’t they file a
case [against him]? I will not lift a finger to defend my husband of
he committed any error.”
Landed Tony
Legarda said her husband did not acquire the
islands on the basis of her influence as a senator. “They come
from a landed family. Even his grandfather—the Levistes—really
own big landholdings throughout the country. He was rich before I
married him. That’s not because I became a senator.”
Legarda’s influence in the Fortune Island
case, however, started to take root even before she ran for the
Senate in 1998. In 1997, when she was already a popular broadcast
journalist, she went to see Victor Ramos, the DENR chief at the
time, to convince him that her husband’s ownership of Fortune
Island is legal. Legarda’s visit, according to a source, could
have been the result of an investigation ordered by former President
Fidel Ramos. Ramos wanted to be briefed on the status of Fortune
Island after he had witnessed the launching of the Fortune Island
Resort in 1995.
Environmentalist Loren
After winning a Senate seat in 1998, Legarda
began to gain recognition as an environmentalist. The United
Nations Environment Program lauded her environmental crusades. She
received the “Global 500 Laureate” award in Turin, Italy.
Legarda was appointed chair of the Senate Committee on Environment.
But despite her growing stature as an environmental crusader, the
issue over Fortune Island refused to go away.
“Actually, ginamit nilang leverage ’yan
[Fortune Island] para makalusot si (Antonio) Cerilles (the DENR
secretary at that time) sa Commission on Appointments (CA),” said
a Land Management Bureau official, whose role in the investigation
of Fortune Island was crucial in Cerilles’ move to cancel its land
titles.
Legarda denied this, saying her husband’s
business “is his business while my politics is my politics.”
Reviewing the department’s inter-memoranda,
DENR Secretary Elisea Gozun said the department’s investigation of
Fortune Island intensified when Cerilles became DENR secretary in
1998.
Cerilles instructed DENR Southern Tagalog to
draft a complaint against the illegal titling of Fortune Island and
its subsequent move to cancel its titles. This complaint was to have
been endorsed to the Office of the Solicitor General.
In replying to his instruction, DENR Southern
Tagalog Regional Executive Director Vicente Paragas sent a
memorandum to Cerilles, through his undersecretary for legal
affairs, Roseller de la Pena, asking for guidance from the Office of
the Secretary on what the complaints would cover and how to
reconcile possible inconsistencies in laws governing Fortune Island.
Paragas never received a reply. “That was the
last communication, and it never got an answer from the Office of
the Secretary,” Gozun said.
Six months later, on November 13, 2000, Cerilles
issued Department Order 2000-83. It was a sweeping order that halted
all development on islands with areas of 50,000 hectares. Gozun,
through another administrative order issued on March 17, 2003,
nullified it.
Cerilles’s administrative order wanted the
department to inventory the small islands a physical framework plan
could be established. The plan would make islands having areas of up
to 250 has closed to any kind of development, thereby making them
strict conservation zones.
For islands bigger than that, the administrative
order allowed development but only through lease or stewardship
schemes. It also warned that titles of islands found to be spurious
would be canceled.
DENR officials are puzzled by Cerilles’
actions. His administration failed to resolve the Fortune Island
issue yet he issued an order that would make islands with areas of
250 has and below closed for development. Cerilles’ order affected
protected islands nationwide, and this did not bode well for Fortune
Island and the neighboring islands in Nasugbu.
But even without the administrative order,
officials said Cerilles could have protected the islands with laws
that prohibit development there. They said Cerilles
“flip-flopped.”
Wrong timing
Cerilles, in a phone interview at his house in
Zamboanga del Norte, laughed at the allegation of a “possible
compromise” to get his appointment as DENR secretary confirmed by
the Commission on Appointments. But he did not confirm or deny that
a quid pro quo took place, commenting only that “the story would
come out at a wrong time.” “If I speak now,” he said, “they
might say that I have an ax to grind.”
He recalled, though, that “we were on the
verge of completing the investigation” of the Fortune Island case.
He did not explain why it fell through. Cerilles admitted that
during his confirmation, “she [Legarda] really made it hard for
me.”
“Siya lang naman noon ang nagdi-delay, eh,”
Cerilles explained, because Legarda was looking more on the policy
aspects that he would carry out in the department. At the time
Cerilles was facing mounting protests about his appointment as DENR
chief, owing to allegations of incompetence, pro-mining and
pro-illegal logging stance, and corruption.
But his confirmation left the question of what
actually happened in the investigation into the Fortune Island case.
(Continued tomorrow).
Part 2 |Part
3 |Part 4 |Conclusion |
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