MANILA — The environment department’s Land Management Bureau (LMB) aims to complete within the first semester of 2018 the plotting of land parcels in areas most affected by the armed conflict in Marawi City last year.
Plotting the land parcels to show the shape, boundaries, and measurements of each area is among the activities the government has set as the foundation for Marawi’s rehabilitation.
“Completion of the plotting activity will help the government determine where to carry out the rehabilitation work,” said LMB Geodetic Surveys Division chief Bienvenido Cruz.
LMB is tasked with developing policies for efficient and effective administration and management of alienable and disposable public land nationwide.
“We’ll continue extending our technical assistance for Marawi’s rehabilitation if required,” Cruz said.
Terrorists linked to the local Maute group attacked Marawi City in May 2017, setting off an armed conflict that lasted for months and ruined this capital of Lanao del Sur province in terms of public infrastructure, utilities, and private properties, displacing thousands of residents.
The government has set the stage for Marawi’s rehabilitation after declaring the city liberated from terrorist influence late last year.
Administrative Order No. 3 in 2017 created the inter-agency Task Force Bangon Marawi to focus on the recovery, reconstruction, and rehabilitation of the city and other localities affected by the armed conflict.
Under the task force’s sub-committee on land resource management, the role of LMB’s mother agency, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, is to head the surveying and identifying land where the government can build transitional and permanent housing for the rehabilitation’s beneficiaries.
Cruz said LMB’s plotting work for the rehabilitation covers over 7,000 parcels of land being used for residential, commercial, and other purposes.
He explained plotting shows if a parcel has problems like overlaps with other properties, so that authorities concerned can address these accordingly.
Cruz said LMB would coordinate with the justice department’s Land Registration Authority (LRA) on its plotting results, since some of the parcels may have been subdivided already over the years without LMB’s knowledge.
LRA is responsible for issuing decrees of registration and certificates of title, as well as registering documents, patents, and other land transactions.
Task Force Bangon Marawi’s original chairperson and vice chairperson were the defense and public works secretaries, respectively.
However, AO 9 series of 2017 amended AO 3 and designated the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) Chairperson as the task force’s chairperson instead.
AO 9 designated the defense and public works secretaries as the task force’s vice chairpersons.
HUDCC will also lead the task force’s sub-committee on housing.
The sub-committee will be primarily responsible for “immediate rehabilitation and construction of temporary or permanent shelters, and the restoration of water, electricity, and other public utilities therein,” AO 9 stated. (Catherine Teves/PNA)
