Kalinga folks get 1,184 land titles

By Dexter A. See

TABUK CITY, Kalinga — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has approved the awarding of 1,184 land titles to residents in agricultural and other parcels of land in this province.

Engineer Ricardo Dang-iw, provincial Environment and Natural Resources chief, said the free patents will be awarded under the newly approved provisions and implementing rules of Republic Act 10023 or the Free Patent Law for qualified beneficiaries.

Dang-iw said the free patents are now with the Register of Deeds for registration and distribution.

The land titles cover residential lots and agricultural lands in the different parts of the province and that the applicants for free patents have been appropriately screened and subjected to stringent rules and regulations prior to the approval of the award, Dang-iw said.

He said their office also worked on areas surveyed under cadastral land survey in order to establish the legitimate boundaries of the delineated properties of the awardees considering that there are conflicts between the results of the cadastral surveys of the various local governments.

Dangkiw said DENR Kalinga will target the same number of titles this year.

“We are on ground survey and hope to meet the same target at the end of the year,”
He added the sudden increase of land owners applying for titles is due to the expansion of agriculture activities in idle alienable and disposable lands.

Kalinga has one of the widest land areas in the region because it is serving as the rice granary of the Cordillera due to the presence of vast tracts of agricultural lands that serve as production areas for agricultural crops.

Dang-iw called on land owners to visit DENR and request for survey and titling of their property to establish security and true ownership of the real estate. “And the greater advantage is that the property will serve as business capital whenever one plans to engage in profit ventures,” he said.

The issuance of land titles will also help government in its revenue generation campaign since land owners are also obliged to pay taxes,” Dang-iw claimed.