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Thursday, February 26, 2004
People’s groups push passage of land management reform
By Liberty A. Pinili
PROPOSED reforms in land management will put an end to the proliferation of fake titles and make it easier for low-income persons to own real estate.
This, among other reasons, prodded women, farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous people, workers from the informal sector, urban poor and nongovernment organizations to lobby for the enactment of the Land Administration Reform Act.
The proposed law seeks to create the Land Administration Authority, which will handle all matters pertaining to land—from mapping, land valuation and taxation to issuance of titles.
Platforms
Ric Domingo, national coordinator of Task Force Lara (Land Administration Reform Act), said the different sectors want to see land administration reforms included in the platform of government of presidential candidates.
He said the task force has established a network of regional groups that will lobby for the passage of the reforms even after the May elections.
Domingo said the bill, filed in Congress in 2003, will address all problems in the current land administration system.
There are many agencies involved in land administration, which not only makes transactions difficult and lengthy but confusing as well.
Land valuation and taxes are determined by the local assessor’s office and local government units.
Land classified as timberland, forest reserves, national parks and protected areas are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and cannot be privately owned.
Agricultural land, covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp), are under the authority of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
Mapping is conducted by the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (Namria).
The DENR also processes land titles while persons can apply for judicial title through the trial courts.
Domingo said that because two agencies can issue titles, sometimes two or more persons hold a title to the same land.
He said the present system also provides plenty of opportunities for corruption.
Some people would rather pay certain public officials and employees to cut through the bureaucracy.
The Land Administration Authority, Domingo said, is a sort of “one-stop shop” as it will merge the functions and services of the Department of Justice (Land Registration Authority and the Registry of Deeds), DENR (Land Management Services), DAR and Namria.
Streamline
Domingo said low-income individuals would have better chances at getting land titles because the costs would be lessened.
The reform would also enable government to streamline personnel, he said, adding that about 8,000 officials and employees of the different government agencies will be affected with the creation of the authority.
“But the reform will benefit 80 million Filipinos,” Domingo said.
(February 26, 2004 issue)
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