Wednesday, July 09, 2008 [ sunstar.com.ph ]
By Jane Cadalig
WHEN a private lot owner donated her property to the Benguet Provincial Government, officials accepted the donation.
But the document covering the donated lot will become a subject of investigation after it was found containing a notation alleged to have been irregularly inserted.
Board Member Juan Nazarro said he would initiate the verification of the deed of donation signed by then Benguet governor Borromeo Melchor and Virginia Bautista involving a 1,000 square meter private lot at Taloy Sur in the town of Tuba, alleging some irregularities were committed.
Bautista donated her property to the Provincial Government, which was supposed to be the site for a vegetable trading post or a food-processing facility.
Nazarro said the document will undergo scrutiny because of a note which states the lot donor will obtain the gains of the donated lot.
Benguet Governor Nestor Fongwan earlier asked the Provincial Board (PB) to seek amendment of the deed of donation to remove the section which reserves to the donor the right to the gains to be derived from the donated property.
The deed of donation, signed on May 21, 2007, contained a reservation clause stating Bautista, the donor, has the "right to the fruits and rents which may be derived from the property for her use, benefit and disposition and the recipient (province) will not sell, alienate, mortgage or in any manner dispose the property donated without the prior consent of the donor."
The past PB, on December 4, 2006, passed a resolution authorizing Melchor to sign the document prior to the execution of the deed of donation.
Nazarro, member of the previous set of the PB, said the reservation clause might have been illicitly inserted.
"There may have been some irregularities committed because the reservation clause has no initials (of the donor and the recipient), which means it might have just been inserted. And had we known of this (condition) we would not have accepted the donation, since giving back the gains of the donated property is not at all a donation," Nazarro said.
________________________________________________________________________
