Syndicates taking advantage of complex land titling system

The difficulty in securing land titles and inefficiency in record management due to the complex nature of land administration is giving lifeblood to syndicates and fixers.

This was stressed by Elmer Mercado, former DENR undersecretary and current National Advocacy Advisor of the Land Administration and Management Project (LAMP).

Mercado said the system is so complex and bureaucratic that only a few understand the process. "It is easy to get lost in the system, the fees, the offices, rules and requirements all add up to the hassle," he said. The complexity is also causing long delays in the approval of land surveys which are among the major complaints of geodetic engineers against the DENR’s Land Management Bureau (LMB). A LAMP study found out that in the Philippines, it can take up to three years to secure or transfer a land title and have it registered compared to just two and a half hours in Thailand.

The LMB is the keeper of the country’s patrimony and solely authorized to do original surveys. It is the repository of control maps showing the location of lands throughout the country. The Registry of Deeds, on the other hand, is the keeper of records. It keeps copies of all land titles and land-related documents and is under the Department of Justice apparently to put some checks and balances to the activities of the LMB.

Unfortunately, some are taking advantage of this confusion. The complex nature of the system is breeding corruption as people tend to pay for services to the few ones who understand the procedure to facilitate the faster release of their papers or simply avoid the hassle. "Some public officials are just too accommodating," Mercado said.

Fake titles also proliferate because of the outdated and inconsistent land policies. Under the law, all lands originally belong to the state. Those that were not sold to private interests stay with the government under the care of the DENR.

However, some individuals are working illegally to sell national patrimony to private interests without regard to public interests. The DENR is the one holding the control map so LRA simply accepts what it gets from the LMB since they have no way of verifying its authenticity or correctness. Under the Land Registration Act 496 passed in 1903, there can be no two tittles bearing the same title number because they distinguish one from the other.

"Once signed, legally only the courts can decide the validity of a land title," Mercado said. One can only question the validity of a Torrens title through a court proceeding convened for that purpose.

Some people think that a tax declaration is enough evidence, he said. But Mercado emphasized that a tax declaration is not a substitute for a land title. "Tax declarations are issued by LGUs for tax purposes only."

Mercado believes such problem would have been prevented if documents were available and digitized. "People could have easily checked them even through the Internet including the property’s history," he said.

He said such inefficiency in the system is affecting the country’s growth and discourages the sustainable management of resources. "Land is supposed to be the biggest asset for the government and biggest contributor to the country’s wealth yet land market share to the economy is just 6.6 percent," Mercado said.

One solution he cited is the land administration reform bill pending in Congress. Under the Land Administration Reform Act (LARA) all land administration agencies will be merged into a single Land Administration Authority. The new office will also be digitized and establish a system to cancel duplicate and fake titles.