MANILA – The Land Management Bureau (LMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has put in place groundbreaking policies geared toward more efficient and effective land administration and management in the country in 2022.
LMB Director Emelyne Talabis said in a statement on Saturday the bureau takes pride in the new policies and other accomplishments on its priority programs that resulted in improved delivery of land-related services to Filipinos this year.
Talabis said these achievements are anchored to LMB’s policy directions toward evidence-informed and socially sensitive land governance.
“We are proud to attain feats this year and we will remain steadfast to improve our services through digital transformation, development of our people, and policy studies for a better and efficient system on land surveys and titling, among others,” she said.
Foremost among these new policies is Land Management Circular (LMC) No. 2022-001 entitled “Guidelines on the Use of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) in the Conduct of Control and Land Surveys,” which the LMB issued in February of last year.
It provides geodetic engineers with the proper procedures for the use of GNSS as a complementary and alternative instrument in land surveys.
The LMB also issued LMC 2022-002 that clarified the qualifications for agricultural free patent applicants and the requirements for posting notice of free patent application.
This was an addendum to DENR Administrative Order 2021-38 or the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act 11573, also known as “An Act Improving the Confirmation Process for Imperfect Land Titles.”
In March 2022, the LMB also issued LMC 2022-004 to provide “Procedures on the Selection and Establishment of Calibration Baseline for Survey Instrument Testing and Registration.” This circular also delegates the renewal of registration and transfer of ownership of the calibration baseline to DENR regional offices.
To streamline the process of public and private lands survey approval and verification plans, DENR Administrative Order 2022-13 dated June 1, 2022 delegates the Chief of Surveys and Mapping as the approving authority over all survey plans submitted to the DENR regional offices.
The LMB is a policy-making body of the DENR created for the efficient and effective land management and administration of alienable and disposable public lands in the country.
Apart from the issuances, the LMB had also successfully integrated the Land Administration Management System (LAMS) database of 16 provincial and community environment and natural resources offices into their respective regional offices.
The respective Regional LAMS databases of DENR-NCR and DENR-Calabarzon also were integrated into LMB-LAMS.
The country's land statistics and records are consolidated through LAMS, a computerized information system built for quick and simple land information processing, tracking and retrieval.
Meanwhile, the LMB, through respective DENR regional offices, consolidated and evaluated 19 towns that have gone through Digital Cadastral Database Cleansing.
The LMB had also issued land area certification for 31 local government units (LGUs) for Internal Revenue Allotment purposes, resolved six legal land cases, and had approved and transmitted 69 Deeds of Sale/Deeds of Conveyance of Taguig lots to the Registry of Deeds.
The LMB continues to conduct the field validation of the 16 regions to ensure the smooth implementation of its Rapid Land Tenure Appraisal program.
To date, the DENR has signed 219 partnership agreements with LGUs.
From January to November 2022, the LMB issued a total of 13,462 agricultural free patents and 23,290 residential free patents nationwide. (PNA)
