LAND title holders no longer need to fear the dangers their manual paper titles are exposed to.
This, as the Land Registration Authority (LRA) is offering land title holders a chance to have their titles converted electronically into eTitles through its Land Titling Computerization Project (LTCP).
Lawyer Renato Bermejo, LRA administrator, said they initiated the LTCP in 2009 to cleanse their old Torrens system of land title registration and provide the public with an efficient, reliable and expeditious service.
The LRA currently uses the Torrens system of land registration and transfer system.
He said if a land title is converted into an eTitle, it is safe from the dangers paper titles are exposed to.
“Why electronic title? Wala nang papel sa kamay ng mga empleyado ng LRA. So, wala ng possession.
Sa papel kasi, madali nilang ma control, maitago o walain. (There would be no more paper in the hands of LRA employees. You see, with paper, they could easily control, hide or lose the titles.) With eTitles, you will just have to input the TCT (Transfer Certificate of Title) number and it’s fast, free of corruption,” Bermejo said.
LRA is the government agency implementing and protecting the Torrens system of land titling and registration, as well as registration of transactions involving personal properties.
The Voluntary Title Standardization Program provides the title owners the option to upgrade manually issued titles to “eTitles,” which are issued by the LRA’s new computerized system.
However, the computerization requires three stages: the scanning, encoding and printing of land titles. The scanning of titles, including the encoding of entries, serves as preparatory process before the upgrading of the title to eTitle.
Bermejo said as of July 2019, around 16.6 million titles or 98 percent of the 159 registries nationwide were already scanned and uploaded in their database.
However, he said, the scanned images in their system are not the titles themselves but only the pictures thereof.
“We have a peculiar computerization, one of its kind. This is a computerization the completion of which requires the participation of the public. Kung hindi lang sana mag-require ng return of title, matagal na sanang tapos ang computerization sa LRA. Tapos na sa side namin.
Sa public na lang na isauli yung title para palitan ng eTitles (If it did not require the return of the title, the LRA computerization would have been completed already. The process is complete on our end. We just need the public to return the titles to us so these can be replaced with eTitles),” he said.
As of now, he said, only five million titles, or 28 percent, have surrendered their manual titles, while the remaining 72 percent or around 19 million manual titles remained unyielded.
He admitted that some reasons for the low turnout of surrendered titles is the public’s lack of trust in the LRA, lack of information, and beliefs that the transaction could cost a lot of money.
The fees for the voluntary title standardization are automatically computed by the system. Some of the fees include an entry fee of P30 per entry, issuance of certificate of title fee of P60 per title issued and P30 per additional parcel lot.
Moreover, the LRA is also pushing for the amendment of Republic Act (RA) 6732, the amending law to RA 26, to allow LRA “administrative” reconstitution of the lost and damaged scanned government copy of land titles.
As provided for by the law, when there is a transaction involving the title, be it sale, mortgage or any transaction that requires annotation, the LRA, through its records officer, is required to find the title to ascertain that it still exists.
The problem, Bermejo said, is if there are instances that the government’s copy of such titles is lost or damaged.
Although Republic Act 6732 allows the LRA to administratively reconstitute original copies of certificates of titles lost or destroyed, it’s limited to the provision that the loss or damage is “due to fire and flood and other force majeure.” (WBS)