21 February 2022, from Gems:

Legend has it that when Alexander the Great arrived at Lycia in ancient Anatolia (now Turkey) in the fourth century BC, he found an ox-cart which had stood, tied in place for ages as Midas’ offering to the Phrygian god Sabazios. An oracle had predicted that any man who could unravel its elaborate knots would one day rule all of Asia. Alexander the Great tried and struggled to untie the knot, but then reasoning that it would make no difference how the knot was loosed, he drew his sword and sliced it in half with a single stroke. In an alternative version of the story, Alexander the Great reportedly loosed the knot by pulling the linchpin from the yoke. 

Since then the Gordian Knot or “cutting the Gordian knot” has come to be used as a metaphor for an intractable problem, but which can be solved easily by finding an approach that renders the perceived constraints of the problem moot and academic.

The analogy might be poorly misplaced, but when you read the preceding PDF file of completed staff work by DENR-NCR, we have our own Gordian knot. 

The elaborate knots were made first with the issuance by then President Fidel V. Ramos of Memorandum Order No. 172 on 16 October 1993, which directed the DENR Secretary to prohibit the Land Management Bureau from executing or issuing deeds of sale covering the AFPOVAI area due to reports and allegations of fake issuance of deeds of sale, which led to the issuance of certificates of title.

That knot was loosed seven years later through President Joseph E. Estrada’ issuance of Memorandum Order No. 126 on 04 December 2000, in response to AFPOVAI’s letter to Executive Secretary Ronaldo B. Zamora thru BGen Cesar Abella on 09 December 1998, requesting the lifting of Memorandum Order No. 172, and DENR’s reiteration and endorsement of the same. President Estrada’s MO No. 126 lifted the prohibition on the processing of AFPOVAI lots earlier embodied under MO No. 172, but ordered the conduct of continuous investigation on the alleged illegal issuance of deeds of sale.

As DENR-NCR resumed the processing of AFPOVAI members’ applications for titling, a new knot was formed when the same agency excluded those applications within the Golf Course Area (either implying that the irregularities were related to lots inside the Golf Course – the investigation of which had yet to be completed after 5 long years – or that the Golf Course Area was held by DENR-NCR in its unfounded belief that it was excluded from the execution of PP 461). This was evidenced through the issuance by then Regional Executive Director Corazon C. Davis of a Memorandum for the Secretary, dated 15 April 2005, requesting for clearance to process the public land applications within AFPOVAI except Golf Course Area. Such memorandum was approved by then Secretary Michael Defensor on the same date. 

Remarkably for some reason, this wasn’t explained to AFPOVAI, particularly to AFPOVAI Phase 678 lot applicants who deserved fair government treatment at least through proper courtesy of information as they were immediately deprived of due administrative process. We only knew about it last 07 December 2021 – 16 years and 8 months after the Defensor memo took effect.
A hidden knot was added on 03 June 2004 when DENR-NCR initially recommended the filing of cancellation proceedings of thirty-four (34) irregularly issued titles within the AFPOVAI Area, a matter that the Secretary of DENR endorsed to the Office of the Solicitor General for institution of reversion and cancellation proceedings in Court. 

Two questions here instantly arise: Were all these 34 irregularly issued titles actually related to the Golf Course or not? If not, what was the rationale for the exclusion of applications in the Golf Course Area, which happens to be our Ph 678 area?

Aggrieved by the lack of dispositive action on the part of DENR from 2005 until 2017, 659 active/retired AFP officer beneficiaries signed a letter of appeal to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte on 19 July 2017, to implement PP 461 by directing the Philippine Navy to turn over AFPOVAI Phases 6,7 and 8. Former AFPOVAI Board Chair RADM Arthur Garrido followed it up with his own letter to the President. 

But another knot was made, albeit artificially, when said letter was instead forwarded to DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu on 11 September 2018 since DENR is not the proper agency for such purpose. This was borne in DENR-NCR Director Caancan’s reply to RADM Garrido on 19 December 2018 that her office lacked the authority to issue any order for the Philippine Navy to vacate the Golf Area. 

The logic behind such AFPOVAI move perhaps lay in getting the current President to finally implement Proclamation No. 461 – unquestioned by three other Presidents of the Republic – by directing the Philippine Navy as their Commander-in-Chief to simply turn over the PN Golf Area to AFPOVAI Phases 678 through executive fiat. But the decisive executive order was not given. [In hindsight, the petition could have been better addressed if only it requested the President to direct DENR to simply resume the processing of Ph 678 applications since until that point the overwhelming majority of lot owners had no titles to the occupied area.]

In any case, resolved more than ever to claim the PNGC for our community, former AFPOVAI Ph 678 Chair Commo Antonio Suratos resolutely pursued high level calls and meetings in 2020 amidst the period of pandemic, particularly with the Department of National Defense, and even filed a complaint against the leadership of the Philippine Navy before the Military Ombudsman and the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission for corruption, grave abuse of authority, and for utilizing private property without the consent of the lot owners in the operation and management of the PN Golf Course.

Eventually, on February 06, 2019, seventeen (17) months before the Supreme Court could reach a decision on the case of Abaya et al., the Department of National Defense issued Department Order (DO) No. 42 directing the Flag Officer-in-Command, Philippine Navy to relinquish control and turn over the area compromising the Philippine Navy Golf Course to all qualified and legitimate lot owners of the APP Officers thru the APP Officers Village Association, Inc.

But just as we were preparing for the execution of DO 42, Solicitor General Jose Calida and the Philippine Navy leadership called on the DND Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and discussed the case of the Philippine Navy versus Merardo C. Abaya et. al. (OR No. 235619) which was pending before the First Division of the Supreme Court. 

As a result of such discussion, Secretary Lorenzana issued Department Order No. 49 a week later, on 13 February 2019, suspending, but not rescinding, the implementation of DO No. 42 until after the Supreme Court shall have rendered its final and executory decision – but this time including every Phase 678 lot applicant, claimant and owner. 

The SND’s directive is unequivocally clear: “I hereby direct the Flag-Officer-in-Command, PN to implement Department Order No. 42 series of 2019 in accordance with the decision to be rendered by the Supreme Court in the aforementioned case once it becomes final and executory. It is understood that any decision of the Court in favor of Abaya et al. shall likewise benefit all similarly situated, qualified, and legitimate lot owners of the AFP Officers Village.”

Asked about its implications, DND Secretary Lorenzana in his letter to DENR Secretary Roy A. Cimatu on 21 November 2019, explained that DO 49 is an internal directive of the Department to the Flag Officer in Command of the Philippine Navy and not to other departments or agencies. 

Moreover, DO 49 only suspends the implementation of Department Order No. 42 and not the processing of the necessary documents to effect ownership to the said property.
Finally, on July 13, 2020, the Supreme Court issued a Decision on the case of Philippine Navy Golf Course Club, Inc., v. Abaya, et. al., (G.R. No. 235619) ruling, among others, that the Philippine Navy and Golf Club are liable to turn over the lots and pay the accrued rental fees to Abaya, et. al. 

The Philippine Navy, however, contrary to its commitment to the SND before an AFPOVAI Ph 678 delegation, proceeded to file a motion for reconsideration (MR) of the SC’s decision. As a rule, a respondent may only file one MR before the Supreme Court. After that, whatever judgment would be rendered will be final and executory. 

With such MR pending before the highest court for over a year now, the SC Decision, predictably, has yet to attain finality to the disadvantage of the petitioners and all lot owners. It would now appear that such MR has been designed as a crafty contrivance to suspend final verdict on our landmark case. 

But here’s the key question: Is the MR then our Gordian knot? No. That is for the Supreme Court to cut.
Our own Gordian knot is the 15 April 2005 memorandum signed by former DENR Secretary Mike Defensor, effectively suspending the processing of our lot applications, a memo which still stands to this day. 

On 07 December 2021, during a meeting with AFPOVAI and Phase 678 Officials which I led, together with President Arthur Abadilla, DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu stated that he would lift such suspension. Secretary Cimatu also asserted that the appraised value of the lot should remain at Fifteen Pesos (PHP 15.00) per square meter, consistent with the objective of Presidential Proclamation No. 461. Likewise, the good Secretary directed the creation of a DENR-AFPOVAI Joint Task Force to expedite the processing of all remaining applications of Phase 678 lot owners. 

In this sense, Secretary Cimatu was our champion on chariot, who stood poised to wield the sword or pull the lynchpin from the yoke. Unfortunately, last week he resigned from his post for health reasons, leaving the memorandum containing the lifting orders, a work-in-progress, unsigned. 

If it is any reassurance, I’ve been informed that his able Chief of Staff, Lt Gen Rodolfo Garcia, a Presidential appointee and an allocatee himself, would not automatically be leaving office even as he had stated he would soon, out of delicadeza. 

Given what’s at stake for all of us, Secretary Cimatu’s departure should only be taken in the right perspective with a renewed affirmative attitude. The DENR-NCR’s staff work is complete. The memorandum is done. The knots that were hidden and looked intricately interlaid over the years are now exposed. 

We shall sustain cooperative efforts to ensure that the Memorandum for the Secretary received by the LMB last 11 February 2022, with subject: “Request for the Lifting of Suspension of Processing of Applications for Titling Over Lots Located in Phases 6,7 and 8 of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Officer Village, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, Occupied and Used by the Philippine Navy as Golf Course,” duly signed by NCR Regional Executive Director Jacqueline Caancan, will reach the hand of the new Officer-in-Charge of DENR.

And we hope that OIC Undersecretary Jim Sampulna will have it within his administrative powers to pull the lynchpin or draw the sword with his pen to finally lift the suspension of our applications and release the “ox-cart” representing our frustratingly long 40-year journey to our destination.

Solving our own Gordian knot will just be a matter of time.