LAMP II Philippines Update

LEI has had some good news over the last quarter with AusAID advising of their intention to extend the contract for two years to complete the 5 year commitment of development assistance to LAMPII. This will see LAMP II continue till January 2011. Over the past few months there has been significant progress in the valuation and Innovation Support Fund components of LAMP II as well as good movement on all four reform Bills in the Congress especially the RESA valuation professionalization Bill and the Free Patent Amendment to the Public Land Act. Speaker of the House, Hon. Prospero Nograles at the opening of the second regular session on 28 July stated that the Free Patent Bill is being fast tracked “to convert more of our land resources to productive capital”. The amendments would allow urban lands to be titled at low cost and suitable for mass titling. A major policy proposal for a revision of the land related taxes was completed and the Department of Finance created a inter office committee to study the report and make recommendations.

Valuation progressed on the market based valuations with Naga City leading the way with a new general revision of schedule of market values completed and ready for the 2009 real property tax collections. The methods are a model for other LGUs. Of importance the Bureau of Internal Revenue agreed to adopt the same market based schedule of market values thus providing a single valuation base for both local and national land related taxes. The project has developed software for a sales and building costs data base and the system was deployed to Naga and Iloilo assessor’s offices. The development of the Philippines’ first set of valuation standards progressed well with the first 8 of the 24 planned standards being exposed in workshops across the country. The standards are consistent with the IVS standard.

All 10 Innovation Support Fund partner local governments in land administration and management reform continued the implementation of their projects with good results in the first 12 months. All five large grantees received major equipment purchases through the technical assistance team with a focus on spatial data management with GIS systems linked with assessor office real property tax systems for tax collection and town planning applications. An external evaluation of the facility was commenced to feed into the planning of AusAID in its possible future engagement with local government.

Education strategies on both valuation and land administration and management were successfully completed and partnership agreements (MOU) are being negotiated. The one-stop-shop for land services at Leyte saw an intensive period of application development with coding and testing of Land Administration and Management System Phase 3 underway. The Provincial Project Implementation Office in Leyte transferred three of the four field teams to new municipalities in the south west of the Province and began land titling operations. Two new municipalities were also commenced in Bohol Province and in Bukidnon Province preparations are well advanced for commencement of land titling in the new year 2009.