The Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) resolved to endorse an enabling bill allowing for an efficient and effective administrative process to title residential lands during the organization’s board of directors meeting in Shangri-La Mactan, Lapu-Lapu City on Jan. 21.

Dr. Francisco A. Magno, executive director of La Salle Institute of Governance (LSIG) and project coordinator of the Land Markets Development Project presented to the board its policy recommendation of extending the grant of free patent to residential lands.

In the current policy situation, the process to title residential lands – through the judicial confirmation of an imperfect title and through sales patent or miscellaneous sales patent application – places much burden on homeowners, deterring many landowners from titling their properties.

As a result, as many as 7.8 million residential land parcels remain untitled and cannot be entered into formal transactions, preventing the land to be put to its best use.

The Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines has therefore agreed to support and endorse the said bill due to its potential benefit to expand the credit market of the rural banking sector and boost countryside development. (Click here for a copy of the RBAP-RBRDFI Residential Free Patent Board Resolution.)

The Land Markets Development Project is an undertaking of the LSIG under the College of Liberal Arts of De La Salle University-Manila.  It is involved in a series of activities aimed at fostering the need to establish a secure property rights regime critical for economic growth and development.