Maramag's Multipurpose Cadastre

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Earlier this year (week of January 10 to be exact) I joined a training activity for Region XIII DENR and Surigao del Sur LGU partners. The participants travelled all the way from their place to Maramag because this Bukidnon Municipality is a successful LAMP 2 site, with a solid experience in systematic adjudication.

Last month I visited Maramag again. I saw that they had continued titling public lands in cooperation with DENR.  They signed a new Memorandum of Agreement with DENR according to the provisions of DAO 06-2011 and MC 117-2011.  Moreover, they had set up a Land Information Office with two sections, Land Inventory and Titling.

At the time of my visit they were preparing to distribute 200 Residential Free Patents.  So far, Maramag has distributed a total of 1,284 patents - 675 issued to men, 556 to women, 8 to spouses, and 4 to joint heirs. I mention these numbers because they tend to show gender equality in titling.

As a GIS enthusiast I was pleased to see that Maramag has a complete parcel fabric – a digital map of all land parcels. I learned that they built this data set with DENR X. RTD Melicor shared with them survey data; Maramag’s contribution was to send two encoders to the DENR Regional Office to convert the survey data into maps. Municipal Assessor Evelyn Lantong told me they spent about 200,000.00 pesos for allowances and salaries of their encoders. She also said that they have set up an SOP with the Regional Office for regular updating of their map data.

With this data, the the Assessor’s Office can easily find any property in its jurisdiction, find out who owns it and how much is owed in terms of real property taxes.  They can also print location maps and site maps.

The parcel fabric can serve as the foundation for other maps. For one, it can be used to create a map showing actual land use (as indicated in the Tax Declaration).  It can be overlaid with hazard maps to identify specific properties within hazard zones. Linked to real property tax collection data, it can also be used to determine which properties are updated in their payments and which are delinquent. Because the parcel fabric can be used in so many ways, we like to call it a multipurpose cadastre.

I believe Maramag will be able to do all these – and more. It has a strong capability for institutionalizing reforms and innovations, as I saw with other technical assistance packages provided by the TAG 4 project of The Asia Foundation. I am looking forward to visiting Maramag again, and being amazed once more by that this Municipality can do.

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