Page 16 - Property Rights in the Philippine A Time and Cost Study_July 2017

A much better scenario would be where all of these things happen, plus the applicant is able to
comply with ROD requirements immediately so that he gets his registered Free Patent in 10 days. In this
case the total duration would be 65 days.

The highest estimated duration of 315 days is longer than how long it would take to get a title in
Laos (160 to 270), Indonesia (69) or Thailand (90). The best-case scenario of 65 days would be sooner
than in Thailand, about the same as Indonesia and sooner than in Laos.

Costs

1. The most significant cost - which is not official - is the “Package Deal”. The cost of a
“Package Deal” reportedly ranges from PhP 2,000.00 to PhP 15,000.00. The service may be
provided by freelance agents (“fixers”), lawyers, Geodetic Engineers, or government employees.
It may include securing documents required to support the free patent application (such as a
certification from the local Planning Officer to the effect that the local government has no intention
of using the lot for public purpose). It may also include the subdivision survey. And it may include
all activities related with facilitating the movement of documents from one desk to another.
Applicants reportedly pay for “Package Deals” because they find the whole process too
complicated, or time-consuming. They may not be willing or able to make the several trips to the
CENRO and other government offices to secure required supporting papers.

Information about package deals reached the authors of this report before this study was made,
during earlier work done with LGU-DENR partnerships. This has been confirmed in several Focus
Group Discussions held by FEF.

2. The second significant cost is the Subdivision Survey fee, which depends on GE Tariff Rates
per region. The cost for the subdivision of residential lots ranges between PhP 5,000.00 to PhP
10,000.00. Within a systematic titling process, where there are more lots to be titled, subdivision
survey cost goes down.

The lowest cost, assuming no facilitation fee and no subdivision survey, would be around PhP
4,350.00 (about USD 87.00 ). Factoring in a facilitation fee of PhP 2,000.00 and subdivision cost of
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10,000.00, the cost of titling would go up to PhP 16,350.00 or USD 327.00.

Both of these projected costs are higher than Laos’ (USD 10.00-15.00), Thailand’s (USD 27.00),
and Indonesia’s (USD 3.90).

For a Filipino family, the cost of titling is around 73% or three-fourths of its average monthly income
(USD 445.54), and 91% of its average monthly expenditure (USD 358.77) .
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The summary table of the costs and delays can be found at Annex C.

13 1USD=PhP49.9392, average peso per dollar rate for 2017, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
<http://www.bsp.gov.ph/statistics/spei_new/tab12_pus.htm>
14 2015 Family Income and Expenditure Survey, Philippine Statistics Authority. <https://psa.gov.ph/content/statistical-tables-2015-
family-income-and-expenditure-survey>

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