Swift land titling in 5 Cebu LGUs

CEBU, Philippines - Five local government units in Cebu partnered with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 7 for the establishment of express lanes for the issuance of land titles.

The express lanes are intended to improve land administration and management at the local level.

The five LGUs include Cebu City, Cordova, Borbon, Tabogon and Ginatilan. Mayors Michael Rama, Adelino Sitoy, Bernard Sepulveda, Eusebio Dungog, and Antonio Singco signed the agreement with DENR. 

DENR-7 Executive Director Maximo Dichoso said the partnership is a vehicle to cover untitled alienable and disposable lands at the local level and have them titled in a reasonably expeditious and speedy manner.

This came after DENR-7 received a letter of intent from the five LGUs to partner in the land titling program and the conduct of series of consultations, dialogues and trainings on existing laws, rules and regulations on the issuance of titles or patents, particularly under the Residential Free Patent Act or RA 10023.

A free patent on residential land covers untitled residential lands in public alienable and disposable lands that are zoned by local government units as residential areas, including town sites, public schools, municipal halls, public plazas or parks, delisted and abandoned military camps or reservations.

Any Filipino citizen who is an actual occupant of a residential land for at least 10 years may apply for a free patent title. 

A cadastral council is constituted to provide advice and oversight functions in the execution of titling program to accelerate the issuance of land titles.

DENR-7, on the other hand, will assign Land Management Officers (LMOs) to the LGU initiated titling program and the titling office may be created.

DENR-7 will also provide technical assistance and conduct surveys, land adjudication, training and capacity building on public land administration and management including the relocation or delineation of territorial boundaries between adjacent LGUs.

The LGUs shall facilitate the titling of lands owned by LGUs concerned through the passage of an ordinance which shall constitute the creation of a local titling program, a titling office, adjudication teams, and information office to facilitate exchange of information, reconciliation, and reconstruction of data from local government and national government offices.

“We will be capacitating our LGUs with appropriate trainings and orientation so that they would be able to know how to initially process and evaluate land title applications,” Dichoso said. – (FREEMAN)