Vol. XXII, No. 63 [ BusinessWorld Online ]
Wednesday, October 22, 2008 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
CITING the need for land management reforms, Speaker Prospero C. Nograles of Davao City (1st district) has endorsed a bill that would institute reforms in the country’s land administration system.
Under House Bill (HB) 2660, or the proposed "Act Instituting Reforms in the Land Administration System, Creating for this Purpose, the Land Administration Authority," the proposed body will be in charge of determining the specific limits of foreign lands and national parks; delimiting the specific boundaries and classification of disposable lands of public domain; prescribing standards, rules and regulations for geophysical surveys; as well as titling and recording of land properties.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) currently manages almost 15.88 million hectares of forest lands, equivalent to 52.9% of the nation’s total land area. DENR, through the Land Management Bureau (LMB), is tasked to dispose and issue titles covering six million hectares of untitled lands that have been classified as alienable and disposed lands.
But while DENR has the mandate of overall administration, local governments exercise direct administration within their areas of jurisdiction.
Mr. Nograles noted loopholes in the current land resource management and administration system.
"A joint study by the Bureau of Local Government Finance and the National Tax Research Center of the Department of Finance reported that, for the period of 2000-2005, local government units lost P9.5 billion yearly as a result of deficient collection of local property taxes," he said in a statement. "Among the key reasons cited for this are inefficient collection system, understated values of assessed real properties compared to real market values and local economic development."
Mr. Nograles said the bill aims to promote transparency and efficiency in governance by upgrading, systematizing and integrating the administration and management of the country’s public and private lands.
"The bill will enhance and improve transparency in governance by eliminating the tedious bureaucratic, technically oriented land titling and registration processes in the system," a separate statement read. — J. F. S. Valdez
