The Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Cordillera is fast tracking the land titling in the region and targets to finish by 2026 through the rapid land tenure appraisal (RLTA), according to DENR-Cordillera Executive Director Ralph Pablo.
“We target by 2026 dapat matapos na lahat and we could do that for as long as we will prepare our database, cleanse our data, and we know the magnitude of the untitled properties,” Pablo said.
This includes the titling of government lands and processing the request for presidential proclamation for areas such as schools, which are sitting inside forest reservations.
He said due to the delay in titling of various government lands, their office along with the respective government agencies owning the lands, end up in litigation with illegal settlers.
As for the situations of schools that are within lands classified as forests, the agency cannot issue special patents thus, a presidential proclamation is needed to process the school’s land titling.
In Baguio City, the DENR officials met with city officials to discuss how to expedite the titling of remaining applications for townsite reservations.
He said because of the townsite reservation, it ruled that all lands in the city can be disposed for titling.
“Only that kung makita namin na wala namang claimant at maganda ang forest cover, ito iyong mga nire-reserve natin like the Forbes Park, kasama iyan that will remain as a forest,” he said.
The land titling can be achieved through the agency’s improved land administration and management through inspection, verification and approval of surveys through the Land Administration Management System; survey and approval of residential and agricultural areas; digital cadastral database cleansing; and data capture of survey and public land applications records.
The DENR-Cordillera is currently doing patent processing and issuances where they target 800 for residential lands and 900 to be classified as agricultural lands by June 30. – Ofelia C. Empian
