by Severino Samonte June 22, 2019 The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila is awaiting the approval by the Quezon City Assessor’s Off...
June 22, 2019
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila is awaiting the approval by the Quezon City Assessor’s Office of the tax declaration for a church-owned portion of the old Novaliches Municipal-Catholic cemetery in Novaliches, a former town now divided between QC and Caloocan City.
Antonio Ramirez, manager of the Properties Administration Department of the Manila Archdiocese, said that after the release of the tax declaration, it will be submitted, together with the corresponding technical descriptions, to the court and the Land Registration Authority (LRA) for the issuance of title for the church-owned property in the name of the 17-year-old Diocese of Novaliches.
Earlier, the archdiocese hired a team of geodetic engineers to survey a portion of the Novaliches cemetery upon the request of Novaliches Bishop Antonio Tobias, through Fr. Antonio Labiao, Vicar General for Pastoral Affairs of the Novaliches diocese.
The survey showed that the one-hectare burial ground consists of two parts -- Lot 143 representing the 2,000-square-meter church-owned property and Lot 144 comprising the public cemetery measuring about 8,000 square meters.
Reynaldo Estrella, president of “Kasamahan” or “Samahan Para sa Panghabang Panahong Paggamit ng Lupa sa Sementeryo” (association on the perpetual use of lots at the cemetery) in Novaliches, said the results of the survey tallied with the technical descriptions on the 1921 title being kept by the church and on file at the former Rizal provincial capitol in Pasig City.
The issue on the ownership of a part of the Novaliches cemetery came to the fore after more than 300 families from the former town questioned the legality and propriety of the project of the Quezon City Civil Registry Office to dismantle the mausoleums and tombs at the old cemetery and transfer the remains of those buried there to small apartment-type niches.
They showed a 45-year-old typewritten agreement with the Our Lady of Mercy Parish Church of Novaliches on the perpetual use of burial lots within the cemetery, subject to regulation by both the church and the government.
The document, dated Jan. 11, 1974, was signed by the late Rev. Fr. Pedro A. Hilario, then parish priest of Novaliches.
However, the former QC Civil Registry Department head, Ramon Matabang, rejected the claims of the group, saying they have not been able to present actual title to the lot.
“Without presentation of the actual lot title, we consider such agreements as mere scraps of paper,” he stressed.
“They must show their supposed lot title to us. Unless this is done and found authentic, we will consider whatever papers they present to us as fake and just ordinary pieces of paper,” said Matabang, who retired from government service earlier this year.
On why the cemetery lot title was on file at the old Rizal provincial capitol in Pasig, it was pointed out that Novaliches was created as a town during the Spanish regime in September 1855. When Rizal province was established in 1901, it became one of the 32 towns of the infant province.
In 1903, Novaliches was reduced to a barrio and annexed with the then town of Caloocan, now a city. That annexation also entailed the transfer of the Novaliches cemetery and church to the Caloocan municipal government.
On July 17, 1948, with the enactment by Congress of Republic Act 333 making Quezon City the new capital of the country instead of Manila, both the Novaliches church and the cemetery also became territories of Quezon City.
The Diocese of Novaliches was created on Dec. 7, 2002 by then Pope John Paul II upon the recommendation of the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin. (PNA)
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila is awaiting the approval by the Quezon City Assessor’s Office of the tax declaration for a church-owned portion of the old Novaliches Municipal-Catholic cemetery in Novaliches, a former town now divided between QC and Caloocan City.
Antonio Ramirez, manager of the Properties Administration Department of the Manila Archdiocese, said that after the release of the tax declaration, it will be submitted, together with the corresponding technical descriptions, to the court and the Land Registration Authority (LRA) for the issuance of title for the church-owned property in the name of the 17-year-old Diocese of Novaliches.
Earlier, the archdiocese hired a team of geodetic engineers to survey a portion of the Novaliches cemetery upon the request of Novaliches Bishop Antonio Tobias, through Fr. Antonio Labiao, Vicar General for Pastoral Affairs of the Novaliches diocese.
The survey showed that the one-hectare burial ground consists of two parts -- Lot 143 representing the 2,000-square-meter church-owned property and Lot 144 comprising the public cemetery measuring about 8,000 square meters.
Reynaldo Estrella, president of “Kasamahan” or “Samahan Para sa Panghabang Panahong Paggamit ng Lupa sa Sementeryo” (association on the perpetual use of lots at the cemetery) in Novaliches, said the results of the survey tallied with the technical descriptions on the 1921 title being kept by the church and on file at the former Rizal provincial capitol in Pasig City.
The issue on the ownership of a part of the Novaliches cemetery came to the fore after more than 300 families from the former town questioned the legality and propriety of the project of the Quezon City Civil Registry Office to dismantle the mausoleums and tombs at the old cemetery and transfer the remains of those buried there to small apartment-type niches.
They showed a 45-year-old typewritten agreement with the Our Lady of Mercy Parish Church of Novaliches on the perpetual use of burial lots within the cemetery, subject to regulation by both the church and the government.
The document, dated Jan. 11, 1974, was signed by the late Rev. Fr. Pedro A. Hilario, then parish priest of Novaliches.
However, the former QC Civil Registry Department head, Ramon Matabang, rejected the claims of the group, saying they have not been able to present actual title to the lot.
“Without presentation of the actual lot title, we consider such agreements as mere scraps of paper,” he stressed.
“They must show their supposed lot title to us. Unless this is done and found authentic, we will consider whatever papers they present to us as fake and just ordinary pieces of paper,” said Matabang, who retired from government service earlier this year.
On why the cemetery lot title was on file at the old Rizal provincial capitol in Pasig, it was pointed out that Novaliches was created as a town during the Spanish regime in September 1855. When Rizal province was established in 1901, it became one of the 32 towns of the infant province.
In 1903, Novaliches was reduced to a barrio and annexed with the then town of Caloocan, now a city. That annexation also entailed the transfer of the Novaliches cemetery and church to the Caloocan municipal government.
On July 17, 1948, with the enactment by Congress of Republic Act 333 making Quezon City the new capital of the country instead of Manila, both the Novaliches church and the cemetery also became territories of Quezon City.
The Diocese of Novaliches was created on Dec. 7, 2002 by then Pope John Paul II upon the recommendation of the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin. (PNA)
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