Stressing that a transfer certificate of title (TCT) is the best proof of ownership of a piece of land, the Commission on Audit (COA) has admonished the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) for failing to have over 132 hectares of property covered by TCTs.
The recently-released 2020 Annual Audit Report for MIAA has revealed that ownership of over 132 hectares of land has not been “appropriately proven or established” because there remained no TCTs for the said properties.
In the same audit report, COA asked MIAA to collect over P154 million in Passenger Service Charges (PSCs) that some air carriers (ACs) failed to remit to the state-owned firm.
AC’s still holds on to the collection as they insisted that PSC for “unflown and unexpired” tickets should not be remitted to the MIAA.
Responding to a legal query from the MIAA, the Office of the Solicitor General said MIAA has the right to demand remittance of terminal fees collected by AC’s “even if it is not yet flown.”
“Some Air Carriers (ACs) did not remit the Passenger Service Charges (PSCs) on flown tickets within the period provided under the Memorandum Circular No. 18, series of 2019, thus penalty should apply,” COA said.
It added: “ As of February 28, 2021, at least P154.491 million PSCs collected by ACs integrated with the flown tickets remained unsettled.
In its audit of the land assets of MIAA, the audit team noted that these have not been “duly accounted by specific TCTs, area and cost/value that would tally with the financial statements indicating that the firm’s 6,338,292 square meters of land costs P14.789 billion
“Land assets, with an area 1,326,934 sq. m. were not titled in the name of MIAA or the TCTs were not presented during the inventory,hence ownerhsip was not appropriately proven or established,” the audit report stated.
Included in the inventory are 158,771 square meters of lots disputed by previous owners. Titles to the property have yet to be placed under the name of MIAA.
“Some were transferred by the previous owners to other persons without the knowledge of MIAA despite the expropriation,” COA revealed.
State auditors also disclosed that 524,862 square meters of expropriated and purchased lots remained untitled.
On the other hand, 309,546 square meters of land previously owned by Nayong Pilipino Foundation was also mentioned in MIAA’s financial statement but TCT’s naming MIAA as the owner remain unavailable.
Meanwhile, COA revealed that levy or sale of land in favor of the Pasay City government for non-payment of real estate taxes has not been annotated in certain TCT’s.
“The case related to this has already been decided by the Supreme court, but the court decision is not annotated in the TCT, and the annotations on levy and sale are not cancelled as of this date,” auditors said.
To address this issue, COA recommended to MIAA to resolve or clear the annotation on the levy and sale related to decided cases on real property tax in order to affirm MIAA’s ownership.
“Take appropriate acitons to expedite the titling of land in MIAA’s name to dispel doubts as to their legal ownership,” the state audit agency told the airport operator’s management.