LAND ADMINISTRATION

Policy Issues in Land Administration

THROWBACK.
LAND POLICY
determines values,
+ LAND ADMINISTRATION
the process of determining,
objectives and the legal recording and disseminating
regulatory framework for information about the ownership,
management of a societys value, and use of land when
major asset, its land. implementing land management
policies. -UNECE

= LAND GOVERNANCE
process by which decisions are made
regarding the access to and use of land,
the manner in which those decisions
are implemented and the way that
conflicting interests in land are
reconciled.
 Land policy determines values, objectives and the
legal regulatory framework for management of a
societys major asset, its land.

The land management paradigm allows LAS to assist

land management generally.

The land administration system provides the

infrastructure for implementation of land policies and
land management strategies.

The spatial data infrastructure provides access to and

interoperability of the cadastral information and other
land information.

The cadastre provides the spatial integrity and unique

identification of every land parcel usually through a
cadastral map updated by cadastral surveys.

The land parcel is the foundation of the hierarchy

because it reflects the way people use land in their daily
lives. land parcel links the system with the people.
 There are three categories of lands in the Philippines:
(i)protected areas,
(ii)alienable and disposable lands and
(iii)privately owned lands.

Of the total Philippine land area of 30 million hectares, 15.88 million hectares are forestlands or protected
areas and 14.12 million hectares are alienable and disposable lands, which are mostly (64.8%) titled and-
privately owned

Chap. 2 Sec. 15 of PD 705 Revised Forestry Code of the Philippines

- Topography. No land of the public domain eighteen per cent (18%) in slope or over
shall be classified as alienable and disposable, nor any forest land fifty per cent (50%) in
slope or over, as grazing land.

Problem Policy Pointers Challenges

 Upland Migration
Cruz et al. (1986) estimated that 14.4 million people lived in the uplands in 1980, and 77
percent of those people lived on lands officially classified as public forestlands. From 1948 to
1980, the upland population grew at a rate of 2.5 to 2.8 percent per year.
>Commercial use of agricultural land and the increased concentration of poor farmers on
agricultural lands in lowland areas in Leyte has decreased the amount of land available for
poor farmers, forcing poor farmers to initiate farming in upland areas
> This led to a succession of weak programs that involved occupancy permits and communal
tree farming contracts.
> Upland agricultural and environmental problems cannot be solved as long as the mass of
Filipinos are unemployed or underemployed and earn less than a subsistence wage.
Philippine land law by virtue of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (Republic Act
8371 of 1997) recognizes, protects and promotes ancestral domain rights, that is,
pre-conquest ownership of protected lands by tribal or cultural communities .
The enactment of this law raised some property rights issues.

For instance, with regards to mineral lands, the Philippine Constitution under the
principle of Jura Regalia provides that all natural resources particularly minerals
are owned by the State. On the other hand, under the Indigenous Peoples Rights
Act ancestral domains include mineral lands and thus, the indigenous peoples or
cultural communities have claims of ownership over those lands.

Problem Policy Pointers Challenges

For example: The continuing tension behind the conversion of agrarian reform
lands to non-agriculture use

Problem Policy Pointers Challenges

The existing land administration system in the Philippines can be summarized in
two words: multiple and complex.

The whole system is governed by multiple laws, regulations, processes and

standards, and is managed by multiple institutions with limited collaboration.
An inventory of the laws relevant to public land disposition and land registration
revealed the existence of more than 60 laws

Given the complex legal structure, the Philippine case is considered unique
because the land titling process is done judicially and administratively

Problem Policy Pointers Challenges

 An inventory of the laws relevant to public land
disposition and land registration revealed the
existence of more than 60 laws.
There are too many maps with overlapping territorial boundaries conducted by
NAMRIA, DENR and IPRA. While the DENR was the sole agency responsible for
classifying land as per Commonwealth Act 141, the IPRA of 1987 gave NCIP a
similar function with respect to ancestral lands, which significantly encompasses
unclassified forest lands.

Both the DENR regional land management offices and Land Registration Authority
conduct verification and approval of subdivision or consolidation surveys for
titling purposes, which results in two different sets of parcel maps in different
reference systems, and these are not interlinked.
Problem Policy Pointers Challenges
Problem Policy Pointers Challenges
 BUREAUCRATIC RED TAPE
President Dutertes instruct Bureaucracy is a
his Cabinet to reduce public
inconvenience in doing
rule by the people
business with the who run the
government offices (of
Finance Secretary Carlos
Dominguez III recently
governments or
named Finance any large entities)
Undersecretary Gil Beltran as and who use for
Anti-Red Tape Czar of his
department and its attached that purpose a red
agencies tape (rigid rules
and regulations)
There is confusion over the status and relative merits of various rights in
land, e.g, CLOAs, patents, original Certificates of Title, Certificate of
Ancestral Land Title, and other decrees. For example, a patent is widely
regarded as a lesser title than a Certificate of Title issued on a judicial
decree.

Courts have not respected the indefeasibility of registered patents to

the same degree as other titles, while some banks will not lend as much
money on them.
Problem Policy Pointers Challenges
Problem Policy Pointers Challenges
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collects four (4) major taxes that
are related to land transfers:
capital gains tax, estate tax, donors tax, and documentary stamp tax.

It also collects income tax on real property, professionals and others

participating in land markets as a business, value-added tax on certain
real property sales, and minor amount in certificate fees.

Problem Policy Pointers Challenges

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OTHER ISSUES
NHA to evict Kadamay settlers from Pandi
housing
Tagum shooting shows land conflicts still
root of PH unrest
The Land Administration Reform Act (LARA)
provides for the creation of the Land
Administration Authority (LAA), a lead agency that
will carry out the reform process and administer
the system, functions and services provided by
different government agencies.
POLICY ISSUES IN
LAND
ADMINISTRATION
By

Windelyn Sanguenza
&
Jeiza Mae Robles