Three Owners for One Piece of Land in Benque

Arturo Martinez

There is also the case of Arturo Martinez. He owns a house lot in Benque Viejo – or so he thought.  Martinez says that he went to make inquiries at the Lands Department after he was told that someone was building on his property.  He found out that the land is being claimed by three persons.  Martinez wants answers, especially since he has been paying tax on the land for the past eight years.

Arturo Martinez, Land Owner

“These are my receipts that I paid upfront every year. It is just to show that I am the legal owner still but upon doing checks at the Lands Department in San Ignacio they told me that this land is not only in my name but in someone else’s name  and this person also has documents for the land.  It is a lease file or a lease grant or something like that. There is a third person now building on the land. So this land has three owners. When I went to check this person told me that they got it from the Area Rep. which is Mister Contreras. This is not right. They should do their homework better at Lands Department and see that is already has an owner. This is almost ten years. I always do checks from the land. The reason why is because someone mentioned to me congratulations you are building on the land and I told them no. So I went immediately, and saw these persons, working on a foundation and I told them and they told me that it was given to them by the area rep. from there I just walked away.”