Govt, NMC sued for alleged taking of Rota land

An estate has sued the CNMI government for allegedly taking without due compensation a portion of its land that is now encroached by the Northern Marianas College on Rota.

The estate of Cresencio Pangelinan Manglona, through its administratrix Carmen Iglesias Lizama, sued the Department of Public Lands, NMC, NMI government, and 10 unnamed co-defendants.

Decedent Manglona was Lizama’s grandfather. The Manglona estate is currently being probated in the Superior Court.

In the complaint, Lizama, through counsel Timothy H. Bellas, asked the Superior Court to declare that the Manglona estate is the rightful holder of title to all of the affected property.

She asked the court to rule that the government and the unnamed defendants be declared as having no estate, right, title or interest in the property.

Lizama also asked the court to issue a ruling that any maps or other documents previously recorded showing title that is adverse to that of Manglona be declared null and void.

She demanded damages for the loss of use of the property for all the years since the alleged unlawful taking occurred.

If, at the conclusion of the case, she is unable to have the property taken restored to the estate, Lizama said she should be awarded a land of equivalent value or monetary compensation for the real property taken by the CNMI at the time of taking.

She also asked for judgment forever stopping all defendants from claiming any estate, right, title or interest in the subject property. She demanded payment for attorney’s fees and court costs and other damages.

Bellas stated in the complaint that members of the Manglona family have on several occasions made claims to the two parcels of property which are the subject of the suit.

The lots are commonly known as T.D. 513 and T.D. 355 containing a total of 3.75 hectares.

Bellas said in spite of the fact that family representatives, such as Maria Guerrero, have made claims to these properties since 1958, the properties were not surveyed until relatively recently.

Bellas said that on May 28, 1998, two Rota Land Title Investigators, Maria S. Mesngon and Higinio Q. Quitugua, prepared and signed a report in which they indicated that the land described as TDs 355 and 513 has been altered.

The report states that a portion of the land of TDs 355 and 513 is now encroached by the NMC campus and the college library.

Not only have the locations of two lots been altered by the remapping but the area of the lots has now shrunk, under the new maps prepared by the CNMI, to approximately 50 percent of the previous area, Bellas said.

The lawyer said that some unnamed defendants or the CNMI have caused maps to be drawn, purposely altering the location of Tds 355 and 513 to avoid compensating the estate for its encroachment and or taking of the land originally contained in the two lots.

Bellas said the government and unnamed defendants have commissioned these maps and recorded them without getting the concurrence of adjoining landowners or Manglona’s surviving heirs.

“Despite having the information which would cause them to conduct further investigation into the true location of TDs 355 and 513, the CNMI and or some Doe defendants have persisted in creating new lots and purported to convey title to these new lots to persons who are presently unknown to plaintiff,” the lawyer said.

Bellas asserted that the defendants have deprived Manglona of his entitlement to his property without according him any just compensation for the use of the property since it was converted for the use of the government.

He said there was and is ample and suitable other public land located on Rota for purposes of constructing the Rota campus of the college.

“The taking of the land belonging to plaintiff’s decedent was, therefore, not essential to the CNMI’s accomplishment of its public purpose,” Bellas added.