Philippine land administration

"The land administration system in the Philippines can be aptly described into two words: multiple and complex. The whole system has been governed by multiple laws, regulations, processes and standards, and has been managed by multiple institutions with limited collaboration. These inherent flaws have been largely attributed to the dual process of land titling and registration—administrative and judicial. This time-consuming and expensive process has not encouraged a “culture of registration” hence a large share of the country’s real estate sector remained undocumented.

The inefficiency in the land administration system has become a disincentive to investment in the land market because of the high transaction costs in securing, registering and transferring property rights. Moreover, the complicated land institutions and processes have further strained limited public sector budget due to unnecessary duplications in management and administration support, and land information and records.

It is imperative that Government is able to balance the competing demands between the increasing need for economic activities and the finite land resources. In so doing, it needs to implement key reforms in the land market that are geared towards the establishment of a single land administration agency that would harmonize -- all land related laws and functions, and where possible, adopt administrative rather than judicial approaches for formally recognizing rights in land.
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This is a powerpoint presentation that was delivered during a sectoral conference on land sector reform on July 2010 as a possible input to the incoming 'new' government of President Benigno Aquino III of the Philippines.  The recommendations remains valid six (6) years into this administration and the issues continues to deteriorate and solutions remain urgently needed.