Online land registry
Saturday, 17 April 2010 19:30 [ journal.com.ph ]
Saturday, 17 April 2010 19:30 [ journal.com.ph ]
This is one computerization project that should not generate controversy and trigger pubic outcry.
For decades since the advent of the Computer Age, the country’s land t registration system has remained largely Byzantine.
This has been the cause of the piling up of lawsuits over land ownership disputes arising from fake titles and fraudulent land sales.
Quite outrageous really since the government has already been wired up from north to south. Just add any initial of an agency to gov.ph, and you can leisurely surf around the bureaucracy.
It is thus a great relief to read about a parallel move to automate transactions involving the sale, lease, and inheritance of land.
The Land Registration Authority is speeding up the completion of a system that would automate the entire process of land deals, an agency official said Friday.
Ofelia Abueg-Sta. Maria, deputy administrator of the Registry of Deeds, said in a report that along with the automation process was the construction of buildings that would house land registry offices in various parts of the country.
Sta. Maria said under the Land Titling Computerization Project, the LRA aims to veer away from the centuries-old manual system of transactions, including land titling.
“The public would already have easy access to land title information from the LRA Central Office and all Registry of Deeds offices in the country to counter-check documents,” Sta. Maria was quoted by a major broadsheet as saying.
She said early detection of fake land titles would boost the government’s crackdown on fraudulent land transactions. Another advantage of an automated process was that land registration procedures would be streamlined and standardized.
“The LTCP’s other important objective is to protect land titles from loss due to fire, theft, natural disasters and the normal ravages of time. We use security-tested document imaging technology,” she said.
The automation process, she said, would also provide a system of control to prevent overlapping or duplication of titles through the use of modern digital mapping technology to create an accurate updated municipal or cadastral index map sheets.
“The computerization system also aims to manage with accuracy and timeliness information for policy making, performance appraisal, operations monitoring and more responsive public service,” Sta. Maria said.
“Forty-three additional registry offices are also gearing for automation by the end of June 2010,” she said.
Since the project started in 2009, Sta. Maria said, at least 53 registry offices have been automated. Davao del Sur became the latest to join the list of these registry offices.
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