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[av_heading heading=’ DREAM BIG ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MANNY VILLAR
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Reforming archaic land laws
OVER THE years Congress passed hundreds of bills, which, if signed by the President, became part of the law of the land.
The laws were designed to improve current situations to, for example, boost economic activity or to correct problems that are uncovered by the legislature.
In time, however, situations changed and new problems cropped up, some of which became hindrance to economic activity, or rendered ineffective by the changing environment.
Laws, as well as procedures in implementing them, must keep up with the changing times if they are to remain true to their intent.
This is why I commend moves in the Senate to tackle laws that have become archaic with the passage of time.
One area that I believe deserves attention is land administration, including titling, because of its huge impact on the current housing shortage and investments.
I’m talking about reforming laws on titling and patenting. Right now, it is very difficult to secure titles and even tax declarations.
The process takes a long time. The landowner needs to hire a lawyer, gather the required documents, pay for a cadastral survey and follow up with government offices, a process that takes one or more years.
Landholders feel secure if they have titles because they can use their lands as collateral for loans, according to Racho Glicerita Racho, chief of the operations unit of the Provincial Project Implementation Office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), which oversees the Second Land Administration and Management Project (LAMP2).
In a paper presented at the Expert Group Meeting on Secure Land Tenure: New Legal Frameworks and Tools, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific—in Bangkok, Thailand in December 2005, Assistant Environment Secretary Analiza Rebuelta-Teh said about 47 percent of the Philippines’s total land area of about 30 million hectares are classified as alienable and disposable lands. These consist of 24.2 million parcels, but only 13.1 million are titled.
She noted that 60 percent of the real property of the Philippines was being held without legal titles.
The paper described the land administration system in the Philippines as, generally, neither efficient nor effective because of multiple and conflicting laws on titling, multiple land-titling
process, poor land records information and management system, multiple agencies on titling and on land valuation and multiple taxes on land transactions.
The situation resulted in a highly inefficient and inequitable land markets in the country. In turn, this resulted in reduced economic activity and government revenues, thereby hampering economic growth and development.
The DENR paper was presented in 2005, but the situation it describes persists to this day.
I hope, this time, our lawmakers will focus on reforming land laws so landowners will be able to benefit from their properties.
In addition, an efficient land administration system will encourage more investments in the property industry, including housing and industrial zones.
This is significant, considering that the six million units of housing backlog and the need to open up sites for factories and industries. It’s a huge capital that will remain idle unless we reform our land administration system.
This piece first came out in Business Mirror on May 8, 2017 under the column “The Entrepreneur.” For comments/feedback e-mail to: mbv.secretariat@gmail.com or visitwww.mannyvillar.com.ph./PN)
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