The Philippine Land Sector and Its Problems

The Philippines has an estimated 30 million hectares of land supporting a population of over 90 million. The 79 provinces are spread over an archipelago of some 7000 islands. About 16 million ha, 53% of the total, is reserved for forest lands, mineral lands and national parks. The remaining 14 million ha is considered alienable and disposable (A&D) for economic development. Of the 14 million ha of A&D land only 9 million are estimated to be titled.

the problem of multiplicity of agencies and processes (i.e. multiple land administration agencies, multiple land laws and regulations, multiple land titling processes, multiple standards for surveying and mapping, multiple agencies undertaking valuation, and multiple taxes on land transactions) involved in its systems resulted to inefficient and costly delivery of services which has lead to flawed land market, lack of tenure security, and low level of confidence in the system of formal land registration.

Because of the inefficiency of the land administration system, it could take between six months to several years to get original title and several weeks to a few months to register subsequent land transactions, compared to only two and half hours in Thailand. This has resulted in a high level of untitled land (around 1/3 of parcels in rural areas). This has also resulted in numerous cases of land grabbing by those who can afford to pay the expenses for first time registration. Furthermore, this inefficiency, combined with high land taxes, has encouraged an informal land market, especially among the poor communities, which has resulted in lack of tenure security and reduced government revenues from land related taxes.