Administrative Order No. 190, December 29, 1965

IMPOSING A FINE ON REGISTER OF DEEDS TIMOTEO D. AGUSTIN OF TARLAC

This is an administrative case against Mr. Timoteo D. Agustin, Register of Deeds of Tarlac, for alleged falsification of public documents by enlarging the areas of the lots covered by transfer certificates of title Nos. 42954, 43734 and 43682 as compared to the areas mentioned in the previous titles, namely, transfer certificates of title Nos. 29435, 43106 and 35906, which they respectively replaced.

The case was investigated by a committee created by the Commissioner of Land Registration, which found respondent not guilty of the charge and recommended his exoneration.

A careful review of the records fails to yield any evidence implicating respondent in the acts of falsification. Neither is there any evidence that he had knowledge of or consented to such alterations. On the contrary, clerk-typist Lucio Balmores, despite warnings against risk of self-incrimination, owned the entire blame and declared that respondent never knew of such alterations nor benefited therefrom.

However, as held by the Commissioner of Land Registration and the Secretary of Justice, respondents acquiescence in the change in the designation of the areas of the lots involved, from “square meters” in words and figures in the previous titles to “hectares” in figures only in the succeeding titles, amounted to an unauthorized alteration which facilitated materially the commission of the acts of falsification by a subordinate employee. He should have foreseen that expressing the areas in figures alone could easily lead to their alteration, as it subsequently occurred. The regular form of the areas being stated in words and figures was precisely intended to prevent possible tampering. Clearly, respondent was remiss in his duties.

WHEREFORE, and upon the recommendation of the Secretary of Justice, Mr. Timoteo D. Agustin is hereby fined in an amount equivalent to one (1) months salary, with a warning that commission of similar irregularity will be dealt with more severely.

Done in the City of Manila, this 29th day of December, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and sixty-five.

(Sgd.) DIOSDADO MACAPAGAL

President of the Philippines

By the President:

(Sgd.) RAMON A. DIAZ

Executive Secretary