Page 11 - Property Rights in the Philippine A Time and Cost Study_July 2017

3. Rejection (or temporary filing) of applications by DPLIs who have “reached their quota” (target)
for the year. The application has to wait for the next year, when there is a new target, and new
funding for Travel Expense Vouchers (TEV) that go with these targets.

The costs incurred in sporadic adjudication are the following:

1. Application fee (around PhP 250.00 including documentary stamps) and cadastral cost of about
PhP 50.00.
2. Compliance with required supporting documents (e.g., Certification by the Local Planning
Officer that there are plans to use the land for public purpose, affidavit of two disinterested
persons, waivers or authorization from siblings). The cost varies according to the nature of
supporting papers required and the rates set by issuing authorities. The estimated average
cost for a normal set of supporting documents (Normal Flow, no complications) is around PhP
2,000.00.
3. Some local governments will require payment of real property taxes for the lot - going back to
10 years’ delinquency, with penalties.
4. A technical description of the lot is required. In many cases, this raises the need for a
subdivision survey (see next Macro Process).
5. Because of the perceived complexity of some requirements, and the difficulties associated with
securing these, many applicants have opted to pay for “Package deals” provided by a facilitator.
This is an unofficial fee which varies from place to place, essentially a fixer’s fee. The cost
range, based on information gathered informally, is around PhP 2,000.00 to PhP 15,000.00.

Systematic Adjudication

The government approaches the people to get their lands titled in Systematic Adjudication. Before
the DENR and local government unit (LGU) DPLIs can do this, they have to organize their own data, in the
form of the Consolidated Cadastral Map (CCM) and an Initial Rapid Land Tenure Appraisal (RLTA) report.
The local Assessor adds data from Tax Declarations to this RLTA report, so they can discern which lots
have potential for titling. DPLIs inspect these lots and interview the occupants to validate the information at
hand.

In a group meeting organized by the Barangay, the Residential Free Patent law, including the
application requirements and procedures is explained to qualified occupants. Those interested will fill up
the application forms. The DPLI advises each one about the basis for their claim and the documents they
have to submit to support these claims.

As with sporadic adjudication, the applicant then secures the required documents. Systematic
Adjudication generally takes longer than Sporadic Adjudication because it covers a number of applications
in one batch. At the end of a Systematic Adjudication cycle, several Free Patents are issued to different
applicants. Contrast this with a single instance of Sporadic Adjudication which is shorter, but also produces
only one Residential Free Patent for one applicant.

Delays:
1. The adjudication stage takes 320 days which is broken down into the following days:
• Preparation of lot information is 130 days
• Preparation of RLTA form is 60 days
• Barangay assembly takes place within 10 days
• Actual adjudication is 60 days; and
• Completion of requirements takes another 60 days.
2. At the LGU, the encoding of Tax Declaration data depends on volume. For one barangay, it usually
takes one week.
3. As with Sporadic Adjudication, the submission of required supporting documents is a major source of
delay.

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