LRA wants law on reconstitution of titles amended

CEBU, Philippines — Officials of the Land Registration Authority are pushing for the amendment of Republic Act 6732 allegedly to stop corruption in the agency, fast track transactions, and give the public an efficient service.

LRA administrator Renato Bermejo asked Congress to support the amendment of the law to allow administrative reconstitution of original copies of certificates of titles lost or destroyed due to fire, flood, and other force majeure.

The LRA wants to be allowed to do the administrative reconstitution without going through ex-party litigation in court.

 At present, Bermejo said that reconstitution of certificate of title can be done only through court order, a process that is very tedious and takes a long time.

He said that since LRA have scanned copies of the certificates of title, its proposal aims to do away with the ex-parte litigation and instead go for the administrative reconstitution of title.

 "That is why we are pushing for the amendment of the law. Marami na akong kinausap na mag-sponsor sa Senate at sa Congress," Bermejo said.

 The procedure provided under the law states that administrative reconstitution of lost or destroyed certificate may be availed only in case of substantial loss or destruction of land titles due to fire, flood or other force majeure as determined by the administrator of the LRA.

 However, the number of certificates of titles lost or damaged should be at least 10 percent of the total number in the possession of the Office of the Register of Deeds and that in no case shall the number of certificates of titles lost or damaged be less than five hundred.

In the proposed amendment, Bermejo wants that the administrative reconstitution of lost or damaged certificates should be availed of whenever a transaction affecting a manually issued title is entered for registration and the registry copy cannot be located from the files after the lapse of five days from the date of entry.

It added that the concerned register of deeds shall determine whether the image of the said registry copy has been scanned and uploaded in the database. The registry office concerned shall transmit by electronic mode a request for the administrative reconstitution of the title to the LRA.

 Upon receipt of the request, the LRA shall act on the request within a period of five days upon being satisfied that the subject title has indeed been scanned and uploaded.

An order shall then be issued directly to the registry concerned to administratively reconstitute the missing title subject to the provisions of Section 8 of RA 26. — FPL (FREEMAN)