By Jujemay G. Awit
Sunday, January 16, 2011
CEBU City Mayor Michael Rama issued an executive order for the creation of a Land Management Office and Land Management Council to implement the provisions under Republic Act (RA) 10023 or the Act Authorizing the Issuance of Free Patents to Residential Lands.
Rama issued the order immediately after he, along with Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young and the other officials of the Cebu City Government, attended an orientation on RA 10023 held at the Radisson Blue Hotel last Friday.
Former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed the law last year, which allows informal settlers that have made a home in a particular land for 10 straight years to apply for a free patent to title the lot.
Free patent used to cover 30 years.
A patent can only be applied if the lot has been zoned as a residential area.
The half-day seminar was organized by the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF), theUnited States Agency for International Development and The Asia Foundation.
Target site
The FEF considered around 250 parcels of lots in Villagonzalo I in Barangay Tejero, Cebu City as a target site for residential free patent titling.
Rama said most informal settlers believe that the land they have been living on is theirs because they have been there for a long time.
Rama,though,lamented that Cebu City, unlike other highly urbanized cities, does not have a lot of land it can call its own.
“But the South Road Properties (SRP) is an area that no one can claim, that land is ours,” said Rama.
Department of Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) Angel Ojastro said the problem of informal settlers has not had a solution for almost three decades.
The root cause is the absence of security of land tenure.
DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo, in a speech that Ojastro read, said there should be no dole-outs to informal settlers.
According to the law, for a highly urbanized city like Cebu City, application for residential free patent should not be for more than 200 square meters of land.
In a presentation, FEF’s Engr. Rhea Lyn Dealca noted the importance of a land office that will gather information about the use, ownership and other characteristics of land within the borders of the local government unit.
After the orientation, Rama signed and issued the executive order.
“The City Government, in order to perform its mandate to promote economic growth, provide social welfare to its constituents and pursue sustainable development, needs to improve the way it manages its land,” the executive order read.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on January 16, 2011.
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