CREBA, Inc.
CREBA Position Paper on the proposed
Land Administration Reform Act (LARA)
- Declaration of Policy
The language is intended to set forth exactly what matters are intended to be pursued through the specific provisions in the Bill. It lays down the premises as to why integration of the agencies is necessary ~ i.e. that determination, registration and protection of land rights go hand-in-hand with a determination of physical boundaries and attributes, and that the fragmentation of procedures, processes, requirements and records among the agencies involved result in conflicts that severely impede the national development process.
It is important to emphasize that the proposed Act is not the reform process itself, nor the cure-all. It is merely the long-awaited start.
The section on strategies enumerates ~ in the order of importance ~ the major thrusts which are indispensable in attaining the above policy, but which cannot be effectively pursued without the essential first step: integration.
- Creation and Mandate of the Land Administration Authority under the Office of the President
Although the Authority should logically and properly be placed under the DENR which is, after all, responsible for the country’s natural resources ~ and land is the quintessential resource, placing it under the Office of the President is a workable compromise to resolve the battle for turf and ascendancy among the agencies involved.
- Powers and Functions of the Authority
The various laws enumerated under the section on powers and functions of the Authority, to various extents, prescribe and regulate the use of land. It is thus essential for a single agency to define the physical boundaries of the lands being regulated, in order to minimize confusion and controversies between the government’s regulation activities on one hand, and private land development activities on the other.
By conferring upon the Authority the exclusive authority to verify and approve all private land consolidation, subdivision and consolidation-subdivision surveys intended for titling purposes, the Bill would serve to amend provisions of existing laws, particularly PD 1529, conferring upon two (2) separate agencies this power. This duplication is seen to be one of the major causes of, among others, overlapping and/or duplicate titles and the difficulty of tracking down spurious or irregularly-issued titles.
The directive to compile, investigate and initiate cancellation proceedings for suspected spurious titles is essential to accelerate a nationwide cleansing process. For, at present, cases of spurious titles are usually detected only when conflicts arise in the exercise or enforcement of possessory rights, and the conflicting parties are severely burdened by title verification processes which involve tracking down records scattered among the various agencies and their local offices.
This provision, in essence, transfers the initiative and onus upon the implementing authority to correct long-standing mistakes and deficiencies in government’s implementation of titling laws.
However, in order not to unduly impair existing rights over lands which are private in character, this provision retains with the regular courts the power to order cancellation of Torrens certificates of title, but allows administrative cancellation of instruments issued over public lands.
This distinction is premised, on one hand, on the time-honored doctrine of “indefeasibility” of a Torrens title, and on the other, the power of the government to correct a mistake it may have committed in the disposition of lands which are public in character.
The presentation of the functions is compartmentalized to provide a better visualization and understanding of the functional integration and rationalization, and to show that the existing structures need not be dismantled but simply placed under one roof for proper synchronization, management and identification of responsibilities/accountabilities.
- Structure
While the local land offices will be the primary and frontline implementers, the provision for regional land offices is deemed necessary in providing for checks and balances without unduly impairing speedy delivery of services at the local levels.
- The Director-General
The provisions for a fixed term, selection from recommendees of a Land Advisory Council and confirmation by the Commission on Appointments, are deemed necessary to insulate the position against arbitrary appointment/removal or undue political influence.
The Stakeholders’ Advisory Committee proposed under the various versions of the Bill is proposed to be renamed Land Advisory Council. The term “stakeholders” is both limiting and contentious, particularly when one considers that the real stakeholder is the entire nation. As a Land Advisory Council, representation need not be sector-based.
- Land Offices
The requirement that the local Land Officer be a member of the bar is in relation to the proposal below to (1) do away with the LAB unwieldy and expensive structure, (and 2) simply confer quasi-judicial powers upon the Authority, which power is to be exercised at the local level by the Land Officer.
While both the conduct and/or approval of survey plans and title registration/issuance will be effected at the provincial/city level, however, the creation of Regional Offices is intended to (1) provide an essential check-and-balance mechanism in ensuring that the performance by the provincial/city land offices of their functions/responsibilities are in order, and (2) ensure proper coordination and synchronization of the activities of the land offices within the regions.
This provision assumes computerization of operations and records; thus, the component units of the provincial/city land offices need not be duplicated at the regional level, as proper review/approval of survey plans and title issuance may be undertaken by the regional offices simply through computer networking with the local offices. Absent such networking, review/approval may be economically effected by the simple expediency of requiring production/submission of pertinent documents in duplicate or triplicate as may be necessary, for evaluation by the regional legal and technical offices.
The requirement for the local land offices to transmit to the central office all original copies of documents/records is intended to ensure the utmost security and continuing integrity of the same and deter, among others, the currently prevalent “saksak-bunot” operations.
This proposed requirement does not necessarily do away with the requirement under existing law for the Registrar of Deeds to have custody of the original copies of title certificates, since both can be accomplished by the simple expedient of coming up with an implementing rule for the production of triplicate original copies of title certificates ~ one for the Registrar of Deeds, one for the Central Records Office, and one for the registered owner.
- Quasi-Judicial Powers
This provision makes it clear that the quasi-judicial power being conferred does not include within its ambit cases and controversies involving lands already covered by a Torrens certificate of title, however questionable, and that although adjudication is to be administrative in nature, the resolution of controversies must still be based on law and evidence, rather than on “considerations of justice and equity” as proposed in the various versions of the Bill. This is because a “sense of justice and equity” varies from one person to another, and to allow the use of this standard in resolving controversies may very well result in arbitrariness or abuse/misuse of power.
Compared to the proposed creation of the LAB, this quasi-judicial set-up is deemed to be simpler, more economical and would result in a more expeditious disposition of controversies involving public lands and tenure instruments.
The power of review by the Court of Appeals should not be circumscribed or limited only to questions of law, as a provision to this effect (1) may deprive persons of remedy in instances of faulty findings of facts or appreciation of evidence by the Authority, and (2) may be challenged on ground of encroachment on judicial power.
- Land Advisory Council (in exchange of Stakeholders’ Council)
The provision creating the Land Advisory Council makes it clear that the Council is merely advisory in character. Representation is broadened to include not just sectoral “stakeholders” but also agencies and private organizations the expert advise and cooperation of which may be indispensable in the proper implementation of this Act.
- Full Integration of the NAMRIA
Some versions of the Bill provide for NAMRIA to be attached to the Authority rather than being fully integrated. The necessity for fully integrating NAMRIA is as follows:
- It is currently tasked to establish primary and secondary control points which are used by the LMB to establish geographic reference points necessary in establishing parcellary boundaries. There is therefore no logical reason not to include this function in the integration;
- The mapping activities currently being undertaken by the NAMRIA need to be integrated with the survey functions of the Authority, in order to properly synchronize spatial data with the Authority’s boundary data, to avoid conflicts in the implementation of laws regulating land use (i.e. RA 7160 on land use and zoning, RA 7279 on areas for social housing, RA 8435 on SAFDZs, RA 6657 on agricultural lands, RA 7586 on ecologically fragile and protected lands, RA 7916 on Ecozone lands, various laws/fiats reserving lands for tourism development, etc);
- Boundary conflicts among local government units abound, as well as conflicts between the national and local governments in the IRA allocation, as the LGUs often invoke the NAMRIA topo maps as basis for their claims, even as these topo maps do not accurately reflect the political and administrative boundaries.
- Abolition of Judicial Titling
Our proposed Bill would abolish judicial titling in favor of administrative titling, while retaining the conditions and requirements for original titling under the Torrens law. It is of course understood that these requirements and conditions may be changed via the Land Code that the Authority is tasked to prepare and recommend to Congress.
- Transfer of Personnel & Assets
The provision that the Registrar of Deeds shall concurrently serve as Land Officer in the province/city concerned is intended primarily (1) because the functions assigned to him under this Act represent the fulcrum of the functions of the survey/mapping unit at one end, and those of the public land administration and records units at the other; and (2) to take advantage of the already existing RoD structure in the interest of economy.
The provision for performance evaluation and investigation by a joint government-private sector ad-hoc committee prior to the Authority’s absorption of personnel, is essential to weed out the undesirables in the various agencies involved. The creation of the ad-hoc investigating committee should not be left to the discretion of the Authority; for, unless this directive is embodied in the law, there will be no assurance that an investigation will indeed be conducted, and thus, the danger will be great that the intent of this Act may be subverted and totally negated by placing together under one roof all the undesirables and misfits heretofore separated by turf.
- Organization of the Authority
The addition of the phrase “under the conditions and requirements set forth in PD 1529” is essential to provide the parameters within which claims on the Fund are to be acted upon. Absence of such a parameter, coupled with the blanket repeal of the provisions of PD 1259 dealing with the Assurance Fund as proposed in the various versions of the Bill, could result in arbitrariness or abuse/misuse.
- Appropriation
The existing land records indispensable to the titling process ~ i.e. microfilmed data for titled lots nationwide, cadastral maps, approved survey plans, and other maps/records generated ~ are in an alarming state of decay, lack of security and exposure to the elements. These records form the very core of the country’s land ownership, titling and administration systems. No other copies of these records exist. Nationwide chaos is likely to ensue should these records become unrecoverable ~ which, unless immediate steps towards preservation are undertaken, will occur in 3 years time.
Also, to date, less than 50% of the entire country has been subjected to cadastral mapping. The existing cadastral maps contain antiquated data which badly need to be updated. The same is true of topographic maps which are of 1950s vintage. The situation has impacted adversely on the pace and direction of economic development, considering that investment decisions and development planning nationwide to a large extent depend on data contained in these maps.
The proposed appropriation represents only the barest minimum requirements. It is indispensable. No cleansing process can be effected unless and until the existing land records ~ scattered nationwide ~ are inventoried, organized, fully secured, computerized in order to preserve, reviewed and, in case of lost data, reconstructed.
- Penalty Provisions
The provision on Penalty is meant to give more teeth to the thrust of eradicating, or at least deterring, spurious or fraudulent instruments. The stiffer penalties are justified in view of the prevalence of various kinds of title fraud and the consequent havoc wrought on the economy and the people by perpetrators thereof. #
Enclosed:
CREBA-proposed draft Bill on the Land Administration Reform Act (LARA).
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