Mass Land Titling Project in Olongapo City

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) agreed to carry out a land valuation at a lower cost for landowners here who want to have their lands titled in their names.
This development came about after Environment Secretary Mike Defensor recently visited Mayor James Gordon Jr., a former colleague in the House of Representatives, and assured that the environment department would lower the titling cost to those who own rights to lands within the city proper.

After discussing the mechanics of the land-titling project with Gordon, Defensor agreed to use a land valuation that would be affordable to Olongapo residents.

The grand launching of the project will be held at the Olongapo City Convention Center today.

City hall officials said the department’s assistance will benefit many residents because as much as 80 percent of lands in the city have no title to this day.

An earlier land-titling program carried out in the city was reportedly not very successful because of a lot of problems as well as the high cost of processing the application for a land title.
Officials say these problems have now been eliminated.

The land-titling program, launched by Gordon, who became a three-term representative of the First District a few months after he was elected mayor, has received a lot of inquiries from residents who want to have their lots titled, and the recent incentive extended by the DENR is expected to further encourage more landowners to join.

Jimmy Mendoza, a staff member of the city administrator’s office appointed by the mayor to head the project, said an objective of the land-titling project was to enable city residents to use their lands as collateral for bank loans.

“Many businessmen in the city sometimes have difficulty in infusing capital into their business ventures because the banks refuse to provide them loans for their lands that have no titles,” Mendoza said. Mendoza said Gordon hopes city residents can avail of more capital to use for their businesses which will result in more economic activity for Olongapo

By Patrick Roxas, MT Central Luzon Bureau Chief