Government has its cake and eats it too

With many various frauds being cooked up by imaginative con men in almost every aspect of our daily existence, many of us shudder at the thought of being duped out of our lifelong prized possessions like lands – inherited or purchased.

With this latest innovation introduced by the government in our land titling system, we may get to sleep soundly at night worry-free about such valuable holdings – with the government not having to spend for it. That's having its cake and eating it too.

The rampant debasing of the country's land titling system has made it imperative for the Land Registration Authority (LRA) to undertake the Land Titling Computerization Project (LTCP) to restore confidence in the country's registry and titling systems and raise its level of service to the public.

The project hopes to achieve the implementation of a fast and reliable process of registration of lands through nationwide integrated computerization. It aims to automate the land titling process that will ensure the integrity of land titles, to provide efficient service delivery and accurate land information and to preserve land records. One of LTCP's main goals is also to link all levels of the LRA with the Central Office, the 16 Regional Registries of Deeds together with the 162 Registries of Deeds. And for those who need instant information, whether for purposes of buying and selling or other inputs for decision-making – historical data and other knowledge bases for land titling and registration.

This laudable project dubbed the Philippine Land Registration and Information System (PHILARES) sees the LRA working together with the Land Registration Systems, Inc. (LARES) and its associates, LG CNS Philippines, Inc., F.F. Cruz, Inc. in affirming its commitment towards the preservation of the Torrens system and the efficiency of deeds registration.

LARES is the project company formed by the STRADEC consortium that was awarded the contract for the LTCP under a Build-Own-Operate (BOO) arrangement, as provided by RA 1778 and its Implementing Rules and Regulations. As such, the LTCP is being implemented at no cost to the government. It is wholly funded by the private proponents without any government guarantee.

To help achieve the project's goals LRA and LARES have put up the Project's Information Management Center at the LRA compound in East Ave., QC, to serve as the main operations center for the project, which will house all the critical computer programs and data needed for the LRA's operations. It is in this data center where servers are located for document images, database for records, applications that will process all LRA transactions, network systems and monitoring equipment.

In the same location to achieve the same aim is the new Registry of Deeds of Quezon City (RD-QC), the first deeds registry to implement the new computerized system. The state-of-the-art IT equipment installed here allows for more efficient transaction processing. The automation of the Parañaque and Cebu Registries will reportedly soon to follow.

As the LRA marks its 100th year today, B with its centennial slogan "100 Taong Paglilingkod ng LRA sa Sambayanang Pilipino-para sa Matatag na Titulo", its leadership is aggressively pursuing the setting up of the Philippine Land Registration and Information System, which will ultimately secure tighter control over land titles and eliminate fraudulent titles by shifting from paper-based operation to paperless system. The system will also facilitate the apprehension and prosecution of persons possessing or dealing in spurious land titles by developing a system of identifying and tracking titles between the LRA Central Office and the Registries of Deeds that is able to verify authenticity of claims, title, records and documents anytime, from anywhere. It will also use modern digital mapping technologies to eliminate fraudulent and inaccurate surveys. Through the system, the public would have access via the Internet all land titling information. The other vital tasks that the system can provide can go on and on.

So, land owners may not have to spend sleepless nights worrying about being victimized by the unscrupulous – The Philippine Land Registration and Information System is in the works. It's about time!

Ambassador Señeres banners industrial peace

No wonder there are not as many labor disputes as there were before. Credit this to National Labor Relations Chairman and former Ambassador to the Middle East, Roy V. Señeres for registering an unprecedented 40-percent settlement record.

It has been reported that the dynamic leadership of Chairman Señeres at the NLRC has resulted in 12,679 cases no longer going through the four-tiered compulsory arbitration process – the labor arbiter, the commission proper, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. This can be translated in millions of pesos saved in government money; thousands of work hours used for other important tasks and most importantly – continued industrial peace.

Another plus factor of this unparalleled leadership of Ambassador Señeres is the renewed confidence of both labor and management on the NLRC as an effective mechanism for getting labor justice and industrial peace, an effective conciliation and adjudication body.

Hats off to former Ambassador and now NLRC chairman Roy Señeres. The kind of breed needed for good governance.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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