By Manuel L. Morató
(Last of 2 parts)
I attended a session of the QC City Council sometime in 2019 to ask the Councilors why we were not informed in our residential neighborhood; nor we were invited about the issuance of “Special Permits” to go highrise in our residential area, nor by the City Council for a hearing in deference to the homeowners of Barangay Sacred Heart. Instead, the request of Dexter Co asking for another floor, 22nd floor, was taken up and was immediately approved in that session by the City Council, signed by Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte Alimurung. The first “Special Permit” given for 21 floors succeeded in asking for an additional floor, unanimously without a whimper. Ang lakas naman sa City Hall ni Mr. Dexter Co.
It was immediately granted and I was not given a chance to speak out to question what happened to my parents’ ancestral home constructed in the 1950s by my late father, Tomas B. Morato, First Appointive Mayor of Quezon City by President Manuel L. Quezon considered an historical site which already falls under Republic Act 10066 to preserve structures 50 years old and above. My parents’ ancestral home was constructed in the 1950s over 70 years ago in very good condition. It had to go to Court in the presence of all the heirs whether or not all the heirs agree to demolish the ancestral home. But this law was bypassed.
Everything was done secretly, totally kept a secret to the rest of the family (us) who should have been informed for it’s in the Holographic Will of my mother, that the ancestral home which is in her name is for the six children. Jose L. Morato (JLM), our youngest brother who is incahoot with the Belmontes and Exy Robles of Sta. Lucia Builder maneuvered the take-over.
I am compelled to bring out the truth for it must be said. We owe it in honor of our beloved mother in whose name the house and lots were solely in her name which the group demolished our ancestral home standing on the 3 lots that composed the garden were taken over by the above-mentioned group which according to reports, this group has been doing to other families using their own deceptive ways.
What is haunting me as well as my other siblings is what was stipulated in our mother’s Holographic Will. Our mother clearly stipulated the line of succession as to who would be her executors. As the eldest, it’s specifically stated that her executor will be me, her oldest son; followed by my sister Elvira Morato Cuenca; Teresita Morato Lazatin; Lolita Morato Quiros; Francisco L. Morato and then Jose L. Morato, the youngest. That’s the succession she had imposed in her Holographic Will.
In short, the mandate of Jose L. Morato, the youngest will be the last in the order of succession. It is our theory, knowing what kind of a person he had become and the questionable characters he mingles with, he jumped the gun (so to speak) on all of us and took over the estate of our late mother, disregarding the succession; and he is trying to nullify my mother’s Holographic Will in court, which offended us very much.
His first move was to get all the Certificate of Titles of my mother’s properties here and in Quezon Province which Certificate of Titles were all turned over to me before my mother passed away. I was reappointed to the PCSO by President Gloria in 2004 which I turned down because as I told her, I am taking care of my mother’s estate. But the President insisted. I was forced to accept; and this brother JLM told me that he will help me run the estate of my mother. He did not help. He took over. He knew that all the original titles were turned over to me by my mother which JLM “borrowed” in 2008 from me and never returned them back to me to this day. It’s technical robbery what he did to me.
In 2008, he came to me that he needed all the original certificate of titles of my mother’s properties turned over to me before she died. ‘Yon ang pinuntirya ni JLM (my youngest brother) for sure with bad intentions. He got them all from me and timed it when I was rushing to a board meeting in the PCSO about noon time that day. I told him that I can give him the xerox copies, but he insisted to have the originals for, as he said, he was going to take advantage of the Tax Amnesty of President Gloria in 2008. Since then he never returned the original titles to me up to now. We found out that he used those original titles to convince his partners to prove that my mother turned over all the certificate of titles she owned to him which was a lie. He did it to boost his ego for he must have been mad why my mother did not turn them all to him when he allegedly took care of her and his entire family who lived in my mother’s house. May masama palang intensyon.
Analyzing it closely, this JLM wanted to prove that my late mother entrusted everything to him because “he took care of my mother; and stayed in her house with her.” Simply said, to prove that our mother trusted him more which is not true.
His stay in my mother’s house “to take care of our mother,” together with his wife, children and grandchildren was not exactly to “take care of my mother.” He had her thumb-mark blank bond paper; got her to sign blank bond paper and from there he and his lawyer with the initial Atty. T.A.; together with a notary public along Tomas Morato, in a barber shop who fully cooperated with him by notarizing JLM’s documents at the date he chose. The notary public (not only one, but two or three) connived with JLM who left empty spaces in their record book for the date JLM wanted the document notarized on his preferred date such as moving the notarization before my mother got sick; or made sure she was still in good health and in the right state of mind. Some documents produced were moved a month or two before my mother’s death when in reality it was only days away from her death.
When we decided to take him to court together with the Belmontes and Exy Robles of Sta. Lucia Builders, our lawyers were able to produce from the Registry of Deeds of Quezon City all the falsified documents.
In every Court we presented the falsified documents, JLM’s group and his lawyers with no sense of right and wrong played the role of inhibiting the judges; re-raffling the case – again and again as a dilatory tactic while they continued excavating, demolishing non-stop everything that belonged to my mother, including the robbery of her estate personal properties inside her house, ransacking all her documents and my father’s furnitures, collections, including paintings that belong to me, and that of my father to show that he was the favored one by them. Truth to tell, there came a time that my mother was already scared of him and my other brother for what they can do to her which reached a point that my mother referred to JLM “Hitler” whenever his car entered the gate of her house. And the other brother who was allegedly the one who claimed to be a doctor without a license wanted that he alone will take care of my mother’s medical care. He even told us: “When it comes to the medical care of Mama, I alone will take care of that; and none of you can meddle.” The rest of you can attend to other matters.”
I would call my mother’s heart specialists to occasionally check her in her house after she got out of the hospital wherein she was confined for five months. All outstanding doctors who took care of her for many years. My brother did not welcome their visits that really pained me. The last doctor I called on was Dr. Benjie Lazatin, nephew of my brother-in-law – a heart specialist who also was one of my doctors at St. Luke’s Medical Center. Nahiya ako kasi hindi pinapasok nong isang brother ko not even to greet my mother in her bedroom. What kind of a message does that send? On my part I resented it very much. My sister Teresita, the auntie in law of Dr. Benjie Lazatin ay napahiya talaga kami.
My youngest brother, JLM, claims that my mother “donated” our ancestral home to him. Assuming that it is true, once he demolished the house, the donation ceases to exist and the property should have been returned to my mother’s name when a donation of a house is done, it calls for preserving the house.
We request that JLM, his wife, children and grandchildren must return to us all the properties of my mother and father inside the house including furnitures, paintings, and the personal things of our mother for even if he insist that the house was “donated” to him, my late mother did not make mention that she donated all her estate properties inside the house. It is understood that all her memorabilia inside the house must be preserved as well.
Where are they? Return all my mother’s things and all that belonged also to my father for all those things belong to the six children. Tell your wife to be decent enough to help return them all to us. She is only a daughter-in-law and she has no right to our mother’s belongings for they are meaningful to us, not to her.
JLM, my youngest brother, made two documents about my mother’s estate properties including the house and lots. One, “donation”; and the other is “Deed of Sale”, no date, no title, not notarized and fake signatures of our cook and man-Friday relative of my mother in Quezon Province with physical defect. Both of their signatures were falsified for our cook for over 50 years died 3 years ahead of my mother; and it took me two years to trace her relatives to get her ID card, signed documents she left behind wherein her authentic signatures appear.
The alleged “Deed of Sale” presented by JLM in court, typewritten by whoever for my late mother did not type documents at all. The signatures of the witnesses were falsified.
The way our case in the RTC Quezon City has been dribbled for over two years now from one Judge to another; libel case against me for telling the truth, from one prosecutor to another to heckle me, I call on the Supreme Court Administrator for help for there is no court of law in Quezon City the way we have been treated.
We filed estafa case in the DOJ Quezon City, not a single hearing was given. The Fiscal-Prosecutor dismissed our case, timed on Christmas of 2018; we appealed the case to the DOJ Main Office in Padre Faura, but it was mistakenly “dismissed” at incomplete daw ang documents we submitted; one document to be exact. We pointed the document allegedly “missing” to the DOJ Asst. Secretary by the name of Neal Vincent M. Bainto dismissed the case on a flimsy excuse that one document was missing which was totally false. We answered him and informed him that we have complied. From then on, it’s all quiet in “Western Front.” No decision to this day. He definitely showed biased for some reason or another, but he faltered and did not work.
It has been a year and a half and no word from the DOJ Main Office. Naninigas na yata ‘yong case namin sa freezer nila.
I call on Secretary of Justice, Menardo Guevarra to please help clarify this case to us. His Assistant Secretary Neal Vincent M. Bainto said in his dismissal of the case that “Section 6 of the NPS Rule on Appeal provides that failure to comply with any of the requirements provided under such rule “shall constitute sufficient ground for the dismissal of the Petition.” Hence, in view of the failure to comply with the mandatory requirements provided under the foregoing rules, the instant Petition should therefore be dismissed.” Wherefore, premises considered, the instant Petition for the Review is hereby DISMISSED. So Ordered. Neal Vincent M. Bainto, Assistant Secretary.”
Before I end the column, let me say na tinetechnical mo yata kami Asst. Secretary Bainto.
Sabi ninyo may missing document na hindi nai-submit ng aming lawyer, Atty. Diosdado Macapagal sa inyo. At hindi kami nag-submit kay Asst. City Prosecutor Roderick P. Robledo. Nag-submit po kami via LBC. Pero ang deadline na binigay sa amin ay December 25, Christmas Day. Natural, the first working day namin isinabmit sa inyo nong December 27, 2018.
Sorry to say, may masamang intensyon si Assistant City Prosecutor Robledo and perhaps with connivance with the office of DOJ Assistant Secretary Neal Vincent M. Bainto para ma-technical kami. We were not given a single hearing by Asst. City Prosecutor Robledo, DOJ Quezon City, not one. He just made the other party win. Ano kaya ang napag-usapan nila?
Well-planned, but it did not work na ma-technical kami. Christmas na Christmas Day ang binigay na deadline sa amin ni Assistant City Prosecutor, Roderick P. Robledo, pero umabot kami sa first working day, December 27, 2018.
Now that we have proven na kumpleto ang papeles na we submitted to the DOJ Main Office in Padre Faura for review, why are you quiet, Assistant Secretary Vincent M. Bainto for one year and a half na? What are you waiting for? No word from your office. Please decide once and for all; or one way or another so we can go to the Supreme Court. Please don’t make us wait anymore. Just decide for we don’t have the luxury of time.
Na-review mona, Asst. Secretary Bainto kaya nga na-dismiss mo na at tineknikal mo na kami. For you to dismiss means that you have already reviewed our petition for review thoroughly, but dinismiss mo for technicality. So, what are you waiting for?
You have proven that you, Assistant Secretary Vincent M. Bainto, had already reviewed the records, so much so that you already issued a DISMISSAL. But we proved you wrong. So, what are you waiting for. Ang bilis mo dinismiss, ang bilis niyo na-review. Now that our lawyer Atty. Diosdado Macapagal and Atty. Dennis Manicad have proven you wrong, act on it na po.
You made a mistake, intentionally or not intentionally. That’s all water under the bridge. Just decide once and for all – NOW.
For comments and suggestions email at mlmorato@yahoo.com