There is nothing illegal about Mayor Francisco Bilbao's purchase of a 5 hectare-property for a socialized housing project in Barangay Pook, Hinobaan, Mary Ann Manayon Lamis, head of a Provincial Legal Office probe team, said yesterday.

Lamis said that when they went to Hinobaan Monday, the mayor and the town Sanggunian Bayan members came to terms on the purchase of the questioned property, which the PLO team found valid.

The issues that were not clear were ironed out at the meeting, and they settled their differences, she also said. She said that according to the Provincial Appraisal Committee the P5 million price of the property was fair and reasonable, and the mayor was acting under authority of the SP.

The Hinobaan town government has already paid P6.8 million for the property and what remains to be paid is the balance of P1.2 million, she added.

Hinoba-an Vice Mayor Mary Jane Cubid and some members of the SB had opposed the final payment of the P1.2 million balance because of "questionable matters". They wanted to protect the interest of the municipality, she said.

Cubid had earlier said that the town budget officer, Jose Candulizas, told the SP that there was no need to deduct payment for the capital gains tax from the final payment due since the title of the property purchased had already been transferred to the name of Hinobaan.

However, the transfer certificate of title for the P8 million property to Hinobaan presented to the SB turned out to be fake as the Register of Deeds certified it was a title that corresponded to property in Himamaylan and not in Hinoba-an, Cubid said.

Lamis said their investigation showed that the title of the property in question is still in the name of Leticia Chua, the person from whom the municipal government bought it.

The title is clean and just needs to be transferred to the name of the Hinobaan municipal government when the final payment is made by the town, she said.

It appears that now it cannot be traced where the photocopy of what appeared to be a fake transfer certificate submitted to the SB came from, she said. That appears to have been the reason for the confusion, she added.

Perhaps a separate investigation can be conducted on where it came from, she said.*CPG

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