LMB bats for single office to tackle land issues nationwide

MANILA — The environment department’s Land Management Bureau (LMB) is advocating merging of government’s land agencies into a single office to address land concerns nationwide.

Having one office to do the work will help streamline and improve land administration and management in the country, said LMB Assistant Director Henry Pacis.

“Our fragmented set-up at present is causing operational problems,” he said Tuesday (January 16) on the side of the first National Land Summit that LMB spearheaded in Metro Manila.

Among consequences of such problems is land titling slowdown, he said.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources and its LMB, Land Registration Authority and Register of Deeds nationwide, Department of Agrarian Reform, and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples are the government offices with land-related services.

Although having respective mandates, LMB said there were services common to these offices.

Those services include land titling, said LMB.

LMB organized the summit to help promote, among government’s land offices and other Philippine land sector stakeholders, better coordination on addressing land issues nationwide.

The summit also presented local and international best land administration and management practices that could help generate solutions to existing land tenure problems in the country.

“Establishing a single land office takes time. So while waiting for this, we’re pushing for parallel solutions to those problems,” Pacis said.

He said such solutions include legislative measures.

The LMB dubbed its summit “Forging stronger alliances, bridging networks” to signify the cooperation it seeks to promote within the Philippine land sector. (PNA)