The
Land Registration Authority (LRA) downplayed the World Bank standard which
cited three weeks as the ideal period of time for the release of land title
registrations and said it is only realistic in countries that do not follow the
Torrens System
“The
World Bank study on the ease of doing business citing 3 weeks as the maximum
period for release of land titles is based on the processes followed by
countries without the legal torrens systems,” LRA Deputy Administrator for
Operations Atty. Robert Nomar V. Leyretana said last Thursday.
Leyretana
had a one-on-one discussion with Land Management Bureau (LMB) officer-in-charge
Engr. Ralph C. Pablo and the officials of the Organization of Socialized Housing
Developers of the Philippines (OSHDP) in the city to thresh out the
organization’s concern on the delay in the release of land title registrations
all over the country as a result of LRA’s computerization program.
OSHDP
President Atty. Ryan T. Tan said the developers are pushing for the
harmonization of the systems used by the LRA and the LMB to make the system of
land administration, property registration and transferrability of titles more
efficient.
“Globally
the standard for processing of our subdivision of titles is three weeks maximum
but in the Philippines you are lucky if you get your titles in three months
(because of the conflict between the two agencies),” he said.
LRA
started bidding its computerization program in 2000 under the Build-Own-Operate
Scheme but the implementation started only in 2008. The computerization program
aims to make LRA’s operations more efficient and prevent the issuance of
dubious land titles. However, developers claim it is only in this country where
computerization has resulted to delays in transactions specifically in the
release of land titles.
“The
three-week standard is easy in Australia because they do not have land
titles—they just have the transfer of their properties listed and that’s it,”
Mr. Leyretana said. In the Philippines, he said, the torrent system has been
followed since 1903 and this legal framework has resulted to a slower process.
This
is the reason why the LRA thought of computerizing their system, to respond to
this particular problem, he said. But
while they have computerized the system, he added, LRA cannot do away with the
legal framework.
LRA
has scanned 22.28 million of 24 million certificates of title and has encoded
21.37 million of such titles as of August 08, 2013. Up to 136 of the 167
Register of Deeds nationwide are already fully computerized and live. Aside
from the usual technical glitches, he said, the agency is also faced with the
problem of antiquated personnel most of whom are 55 years old and above who are
not computer-savvy.
“Only
6-7% of the Registry of Deeds have not been computerized but these are smaller
ones located in Batanes, Bongao, Tawi-Tawi and Catanduanes,” Mr. Leyretana
said.
But
the computerization process did not reinvent the wheel of the whole land title
registration program based on PD 1529, he said. PD 1529 is the law amending and
codifying the Laws relative to registration of property.
A
case in point, he said, is the process of getting a certificate of copy of a
lost land title. Many people think we can just print the copy since we are
computerized, he added, but they still have to go to court and file a petition
to get an order directing the Register of Deeds to issue a copy.
Leyretana was however quick to point out the benefits of the computerization
program saying lot owners can now go to the LRA and get a print out of the land
configuration in order to determine the right measurement of their lots. It has
also started to offer geo-spatial query service to several government agencies
to identify the right of way and titled property falling within danger zones.
“We
have been pushing for the LARA Law (Land Administration and Reform Act) in
order to harmonize our policies,” Pablo said. He said they were asked to
submit the latest version of this bill in order to harmonize the different
government processes. The LARA Bill seeks to combine several offices with land
distribution functions into one.
However, Leyretana said they have been vigilant in opposing the passage of this
bill. “We want a reconfiguration not a merging of all agencies with land
distribution functions,” he added. LRA should not be lumped among these
agencies, he said, because it is only mandated to register titles and not to
dispose or distribute.
