Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1219206
15 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 MARCH 2020 NEWS Church-State delisting Crucial in this saga is one important victory for the landowners, who claimed to be the rightful heirs of the Cosmana Navarra foundation. As confirmed by MaltaToday, in 1992 the Church passed on the lands of the Ab- bazia into the so-called 'Annex 8', a list of Church lands that had to be registered in the name of the Maltese State under the terms of the agreement with the Holy See that same year. The laborious process of registration has been ongoing since then. According to the Joint Office – the Lands Authority entity responsible for the registration of these lands – the Abbazia's lands should have been excluded from the Annex 8, because it was a "property held by one of the ecclesiastical entities or property subject solely to a pious bur- then." "When the Joint Office was carrying out its researches on the Abbazia Stagno Navarra, with a view of registering this es- tate at the Land Registry in the name of government, it transpired that the Abba- zia was limitedly entrusted to administer the estate listed under its name," a spokes- person said. "The fact that the Abbazia had the ad- ministration and not the ownership of the immovable properties in question, ren- dered the latter properties… as not hav- ing formed part of the immovable estate transferred to the State under the 1991 Church-State Agreement." €200,000 paves the way to land registra- tions In an agreement reached in February 2017, Valentino now assumed the role of rector of the giuspatronato, which meant it now assumed the Church's former role in pursuing its claims against Gatt Devel- opments, to demand fees for rock-cutting that had gone beyond previously agreed limits. But also, to register all the lands falling under the giuspatronato under its name. The Church deal was sealed for the price of €200,000, a sum which the Curia told MaltaToday was contracted by its Dioc- esan Finance Committee. "The release of the said land was an administrative deci- sion taken by the Diocesan Finance Com- mittee. Dr Valentino was nominated by the [Stagno Navarra] family and accepted by the DFC." Crucially, the €200,000 was paid not just by the Stagno Navarra heirs, who fronted €120,000. The other €80,000 was paid out by Carmelo Galea and Dennis Montebello – Jimp Ltd's shareholders and owners of Berracimp. It is probably also for that reason that in August 2017, the Stagno Navarras, Mon- tebello and Galea formed the Carravan Company Ltd. "The DFC was aware that Dr Galea and Dr Montebello had some form of interest in the land, but was not aware of specifics," a Curia spokesperson said, when queried about the interested parties. Carravan is owned by the Stagno Navarra family (Dei Conti Holdings, 60%), Carme- lo Galea (20%), and Carrac (20%), whose main shareholders are Dennis Montebel- lo's daughters Rachel and Carol. What did the 'new' Abbazzia do? The €200,000 – paid by the Carravan business partners – are supposed to be used by the Church to fulfil pious acts in the name of Cosmana Navarra, as request- ed in the Abbazia foundational deed. But since 2017, the Abbazia has been transferring lands inside the Qala devel- opment zone to Carravan – specifically a 23,000sq.m piece of land at Ghar Boffa in Qala, for the annual concession of €43,000. Another 28,000sq.m tract at Tas-Sajtun in Qala was also transferred on an annual concession of €35,000. Concurrently, the Planning Authority has green-lit three applications at Ghar Boffa for a row of housing that will include 85 apartments over three storeys, and 78 garages, presented by business associates of Gozitan property entrepreneur Joe Portelli, known for the Mercury House high-rise. The Abbazia's rector, Peter Valentino, has previously refused to answer a series of detailed questions sent by MaltaToday, in- sisting that there was "absolutely no public interest as to [the Abbazia's] dealings." He also said that the old rents were from the 18th century and had never been up- dated since. Freed of its impending regis- tration in favour of the Maltese govern- ment, residents and farmers in Qala have now started receiving letters from the Ab- bazia, of hiked rents – one farmer claimed he has to pay 30 times the 'qbiela' on his four tumuli of land. Quarry wars A major bone of contention is playing out in court between the Abbazia and Gatt Developments, the company occupying one of the two quarries on the Qala coast- line, the other being Roads Construction. Gatt has occupied the quarry since the early 1980s, when he acquired the former company that worked the quarry. Orig- inally, it was the cleric administering the Abbazia's lands who granted the first com- pany the emphyteusis on the land to cut rock. In 2003, the Maltese Archdiocese, as the administrator of the Abbazia, unsuccess- fully attempted to have Roads Construc- tion Ltd evicted from the quarry, because it had failed to prove that the area – known as tal-Wardati – was indeed the property of the Abbazia. Indeed it was only because, the Court said, the cleric administering the land at the time, Fr Saverin Bianco, had "indicated the land with his finger on the map, without consulting any maps" to the Church's land surveyor. But when two architects were asked to interpret the borders of this land from a plan included in a contract from 1737, both agreed that the Church's interpreta- tion of the extent of the Abbazia's lands had been incorrect. The court declared that the Church had failed to prove its possession of the lands acquired by Roads Construction. Yet since the Church relinquished its administration of the Abbazia, the private landowners are now seeking the eviction of nearby quarry owner Roads Development. One email from 2 July 2018, presented in court, indicates that the Abbazia wants Gatt to pay more for its rock-cutting, and has accused the company of having cut rock deeper than it was allowed by pre- vious agreements. "Once we agree on the process [to establish how much Gatt has to pay for the rock-cutting] we will be able to discuss the territorial concession for rea- sons that go beyond simple rock-cutting." The suggestion points at Gatt's intention to develop a cruise liner terminal, a pro- ject that was being handled by a delegate of the Prime Minister – Tony Borg – but which, so far, has not advanced on the government's agenda. The Abbazia has refused to comment on whether it is in- terested in developing the quarry "beyond simple rock-cutting". The Abbazia is no longer accepting the annual €652 pittance from the emphyteu- tical grant, and is now seeking Gatt's evic- tion. Both sides attempted a mediation, which mediation was carried out by Judge emeritus Philip Sciberras. From left: Dennis Montebello, Patrick Valentino, and Carmelo Galea. Below: Alternattiva breaks the story in 1992