House Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta filed a resolution on July 22 seeking to investigate ABS-CBN’s ownership of its Quezon City property.
Marcoleta’s Resolution 1058 claimed that the title to the Mother Ignacia Street property could be of “dubious origin,” and could be the subject of an action for nullification of title by the Office of the Solicitor General.
“Whereas, during the hearing of the franchise application of ABS-CBN Corporation (ABS-CBN) as regards the reacquisition of its properties in 1986, the network presented as proof of the Mother Ignacia property, a machine copy of the Owner’s Duplicate of Title, TCT No. 125702 (PR-9690),” the resolution read.
Marcoleta said the certified electronic copy, which he had retrieved from the Registry of Deeds of Quezon City, showed “an ‘Owner’s Duplicate Copy’ of the title and not the ‘Original Certificate Copy.’”
The copy the owner’s duplicate copy submitted by the network, said Marcoleta, stated that the document was a transfer certificate.
“This simply means that the alleged present title of ABS-CBN (TCT No. 125702), is a transfer, or immediately precedes, from the Transfer Certificate Title No. 110731/T-557,” he said.
The TCT No. 110731 however showed a different description of the location and area from where the TV network is located, Marcoleta said.
“There appears to be no plausible explanation why ABS-CBN’s TCT No. 125702, which allegedly houses its main headquarters in Mother Ignacia, Quezon City with an area of 44,027 square meters, would originate from TCT No. 110731, a parcel of land described to be located in Brgy. Nagkaisang Nayon,” he said.
Marcoleta said it was “intriguing” that the network has a “twin title number” to a land situated at the University District in Quezon City. Ma. Veracel A. Martinez