1. Land Administration System in the Philippines
Title Slide
Land Administration System in the Philippines
by:
ATTY. ERNESTO D. ADOBO, JR.
Undersecretary for Staff Bureaus
Department of Environment and Natural Resources
Republic of the Philippines
First, let me thank the organizers of this Convention for inviting our Secretary to share the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR’s) recent experience in our land sector, particularly in implementing the Land Administration and Management Project (LAMP) together with other reform initiatives. The current situation however requires him to stay in the Philippines.
I am speaking before you today with great optimism on the way developments are happening in the Land Administration System in the Philippines…and how we think these are going to contribute significantly in supporting the economic development of our country.

2. Presentation Outline:
Title Slide
Presentation Outline:
Background: 100 Years of Land Titling
LAMP to the Rescue
Major Reforms and Innovations
Systematic Titling/Adjudication
Benefits of Systematic Titling done by the National Government
Advantages of Systematic Titling in Partnership with the Local Government Units (LGUs)
Important Lessons and Findings
This is the Outline of my Presentation…….
(PLEASE READ THE SLIDE TEXTS)

3. Background: 100 Years of Land Titling
Title Slide
Background: 100 Years of Land Titling
Good intentions with side effects
Many government agencies with overlapping functions and gaps (Land Management Bureau; Department of Agrarian Reform; National Commission on Indigenous People; Land Registration Authority)
I used to speak of the ills of our land administration system for quite a long time, at some point with frustrations on the problems and our apparent lack of cohesive approach to solving them. From land classification, to land surveying, land titling/adjudication, even registration and valuation, our system of more than 100 years have unintentionally developed overlapping functions and gaps between various agencies established supposedly to facilitate land disposition and protect land tenure……what an irony.

4. Background: 100 Years of Land Titling
Title Slide
Background: 100 Years of Land Titling
Negative impact on ground operations
More requirements for applicants
Competition among agencies
Increased risk of double titling
Lack of complete access to updated cadastral information by the Local Government Units (LGUs)
Indeed, the effects are chaotic to some of our countrymen and to the government itself.
(PLEASE READ THE SLIDE TEXTS)

5. Title Slide
LAMP to the Rescue……
Under the Land Administration and Management Project (LAMP) with World Bank (WB) and AusAID
LAMP1 ( ) - Pilot testing, conduct of major policy studies, identify reform strategies
LAMP2 ( ) - Pursue policy reforms, scale up titling and records management innovations to three (3) provinces
But after 12 years of implementing the Land Administration and Management Project (LAMP) which started way back when I was the Director of Lands, our long and ardent efforts to introduce major reforms are reaping significant accomplishments that now help us define our future strategies in land administration and management.
While our ‘ambitious’ quest for an integrated land administration agency remains slippery, the following achievements however are worth mentioning and I believe have drawn us closer to the realization of the need for such reform measure:

6. Major Reforms and Innovations
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Major Reforms and Innovations
Land Administration and Management System (LAMS). This system has been completed nationwide
Securing a 60M USD WB loan to complete the conversion of our paper records estimated at around 200,000 million maps and documents (many of which are in the advance stage of deterioration)
Reducing the cost of access to land information by the public by >60% and speeding up delivery of services on the part of the government by 5 to 10 times
First is the development of a system that will integrate the survey and public land application information in our Department, and computerize our survey verification process. This is called the Land Administration and Management System (LAMS). Installation of this system has been completed nationwide and we are now in the process of securing a 60M USD WB loan to complete the conversion of our paper records estimated at around 200,000 million maps and documents (many of which are in the advanced stage of deterioration) into effective databases supporting LAMS. This is expected to reduce the cost of access to land information by the public by >60% while speeding up the delivery of services on the part of the government by 5 to 10 times.

7. Major Reforms and Innovations
Title Slide
Major Reforms and Innovations
Passage of Republic Act “Residential Free Patent Act of 2010”
This law is expected to be implemented with strong support from local government units in view of its potential contribution to their local property tax revenue
In 2010, we have passed a law (RA 10023) which provides for free titling of residential lands. Our previous law allows free titling only for agricultural lands. Residential lands are either purchased from the government or judicially titled, both of which are tedious and expensive and are the main cause of about 3-6 million parcels, which remain untitled to date. This law is expected to be implemented with strong support from local government units in view of its potential contribution to their local property tax revenue.

8. Major Reforms and Innovations
Title Slide
Major Reforms and Innovations
Systematic Titling or Adjudication with Strong LGU Participation
This system is expected to improve land titling at the local level and multiply the DENR’s overall resources by up to 10 times
The process will capacitate LGUs towards a better land management through the provision of maps and other information by the national government, as well as technical support
Third is the introduction of Systematic Titling or Adjudication. Although this approach may be considered somewhat late in our titling history (around 80% complete), still it is a significant innovation in areas with high number of untitled parcels, such as the province of Bohol, where 25,000 titles were issued in one year. This figure may not be as big compared to what other countries have accomplished, but to us, this was never done before. Furthermore what made this innovation very significant is the provision of counterpart funds and human resources by the local government unit where systematic land titling is implemented. It only shows that their leaders understand how land titling and sharing of cadastral information will benefit them in return.
While titling of agricultural lands in the Philippines is almost complete, the remaining residential lands are estimated to take another years or more for the national government to title at the current pace. With systematic titling in partnership with our local government units, we expect to improve land titling at the local level and multiply our overall resources by up to 10 times and therefore complete the remaining work in probably less than 10 years through a nationwide accelerated approach.
The process will also capacitate them towards a better land management through the provision of maps and other information by the national government, as well as training and technical support.

9. Major Reforms and Innovations
Title Slide
Major Reforms and Innovations
Valuation Technologies
Real Estate Services Act
National Valuation Standards and Systems
5. Land Sector Development Framework (LSDF)” - Roadmap towards a 20-year vision, mission, and key policy statement and strategies in four (4) areas: Land Administration; Land Management; Land Information Management; and Valuation
We have also achieved reforms in the valuation side. The local assess value of our lands are very low compared to their true market value, hence LGUs collect so little in terms of real property tax. Reforms are introduced by developing systems to capture the real cost of land transfer or sales data at the local government level, that enhances the updating of their schedule of market values making it close if not equal to the true market value. This is then advocated for adoption by both local and national government, hence avoiding distortion of land values. This was already proven in the City of Naga, in the Province of Camarines Sur.
Lastly and I would suppose, the most important one, is the production of a Land Sector Development Framework (LSDF), which serves as our blue print or guidepost for the future direction of our land administration and management. This document can be compared to a vehicle for reform implementation. It provided a 20-year vision, mission statements as well as key policy statement and strategies to achieve the vision in 4 thematic areas namely: Land Administration, Land Management, Land Information Management and Valuation, together with the enabling environment.

10. Other reforms outside of LAMP
Title Slide
Other reforms outside of LAMP
Land Titling Computerization Project (LTCP) through the Land Administration Authority (LRA)
“Geoportal” Project a.k.a. National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) through the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA)
Cadastral Survey Project of the remaining un- surveyed municipalities in the next 2 years
Outside of LAMP, we are now implementing a Land Titling Computerization Project (LTCP) through the Land Registration Authority which aims to significantly improve and make more secure and accessible our title registration system. We have also started our ‘Geoportal’ project through our National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA), which will capture all the computerized information from the above initiatives and from other sectors, into a more organized set up or what we all know as the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).
We are also completing the Cadastral Survey of the remaining un-surveyed municipalities in the next 2 years to settle political boundary problems and trigger massive land titling on these areas.

11. Systematic Titling/Adjudication
Title Slide
Systematic Titling/Adjudication
Benefits of Systematic Titling done by the National Government
Services brought closer to the people
Requirements simplified - collectively secured at the local level
Faster processing time from 2-3 years down to 2-3 months
Transparency - active involvement of land owners reduces errors in identification of claimant and boundary
These are the benefits of Systematic Titling done by the National Government. (PLEASE READ THE SLIDE TEXTS)
If we are to sum up the combined effects of the above to our economic development, streams of benefits to our people and increase revenues from land transactions in the future are expected to pour at the local and national level.

12. Systematic Titling/Adjudication
Title Slide
Systematic Titling/Adjudication
Advantages of Systematic Titling in partnership with Local Government Units
Local leaders sees benefits, share resources
Improve LGU access to cadastral information
Increased revenues on Real Property Taxes
Strengthened capacity of LGUs for land administration and management for global challenges
Multiplies overall government manpower for titling by up to 10 times
Let me depict a simple scenario: If systematic approach to titling is done in partnership with local government on municipalities covered by the cadastral surveys and facilitated by LAMS, and the land values are then subsequently updated, one will probably find it simple to do the math in terms of benefits to the people and revenues to the government. But more than that are the other impacts of having improved access to accurate and updated information which will better prepare our LGUs in responding to disasters and other calamities brought about by climate change.

13. Important Lessons and Findings
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Important Lessons and Findings
Partnership between national and local government units is a must for land titling to be made more efficient
Commitment and readiness of LGUs to be preferred over engaging them all at once
Let me end by drawing some important lessons from our experience:
(PLEASE READ THE SLIDE TEXTS)

14. Title Slide
More Lessons……..
A good grasp of land administration activities and issues as well as long term direction and benefits to local development are very important in communicating reforms with local leaders, especially if the objective is to get them to participate in its processes… such as land titling
(PLEASE READ THE SLIDE TEXTS)

15. Title Slide
More Lessons……..
Given the difficult process of introducing institutional reforms in the Philippines, integrated land information system can be an interim or alternative over a single integrated agency
(PLEASE READ THE SLIDE TEXTS)

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More Lessons……..
The best incentive for project implementers is when they realize the impact of the work they are doing to the community and the government. These are the people that produce the highest results and get support from the local partners.
This is basically what happened in the Province of Bohol, our model province
(PLEASE READ THE SLIDE TEXTS)

17. Title Slide
Thank You..!