Urgency of reforms in land administration stressed

How important are reforms in land administration for the marginalized Filipino?

For Ric Domingo, national coordinator of the basic sector under the Task Force LARA (Land Administration Reform Act), the urgency of such reforms hinges on people’s basic right to own land out of their own toil.

"It would not only cut red tape and transaction costs. It should provide the poor sector access to affordable land surveying and titling services. It should allow them to gain security of (land) tenure," Domingo explains.

With interest in good governance and asset reforms, the basic sector represented by Domingo is pressing for mechanisms and structure that would ensure transparency and accountability in land administration. Thus, the basic sector’s national level advocacy has been working on a client-focused land titling system where land records and information are the privilege not only of those who can pay but the marginalized Filipinos as well. They also see the importance of timeliness and effectiveness of the delivery of titling services that would enable the marginalized sectors to "partake the fruits of a just and equitable system."

Looking at the entire picture, the issue of land administration is likewise critical to the survival of any local government unit (LGU). While land is the LGU’s source of local revenue that delivers basic services, reforms in land administration means the LGU will be able to render more benefits not only for its sustenance but for its people’s development as well.

"Land is the most productive asset of our people and local governments," says Gerardo Calderon, secretary general of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines.

"It is for this purpose that the effective, efficient and transparent administration of land resources sits at the heart of local governance," he added.

According to a study conducted by the Land Administration and Management Project of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, of the country’s 30 million hectares shared by the country’s 85 million people, only a small percentage of the population have access to land.

Whether for the marginalized sector or for the LGU, the urgency of land administration reforms goes beyond access to land as it underscores security of tenure to maximize its productivity and thus benefit its population. Higher productivity, greater access to credit and increased investment in physical asset and more importantly in children’s education are only some of the many benefits that can influence both rural and urban households and spur the local economy. But despite the good intentions behind land administration reforms, a majority of policy-makers are not too keen on such initiatives. Controversial issues on land registration and valuation continue to hound the move to push these reforms.

At this time when all the initiatives have been buried with the end of the 13th Congress and the May elections fever sweeping across the country, the basic sector and the rest of the Filipinos who long for an honest and transparent land administration system can only dream of land transactions without fixers, and most of all a fair and just system.