December, 2014 

Land Management Bureau Director (LMB) Ralph C. Pablo urges co-implementers of the National Cadastral Survey Program (NCSP)in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to fast tract the remaining unsurveyed parcels in the Region to keep up with the deadline set by Malacanang.

“The President through the Office of the Cabinet Secretary-Performance and Project Management Office (OCS-PPMO) is closely monitoring all projects under the ARMM and we are required to submit accomplishment reports on time,“ Pablo pointed outduring a workshop on the downloading of funds to the cadastral project in the Region held in Manila on November 10-11, 2014.

The workshop, participated by key officials of DENR-ARMM, LMB and DENR Field Operations Office became the venue to further thresh out issues relating to the timely completion of the cadastral survey in ARMM.

Among the issues tackled during the workshop were implementation issues relative to the latest update of the previously concluded projects; the causes of projects’ delay; procurement for the remaining 58 projects and lessons learned from the completed projects.

Likewise, thereview of the bidding documents; posting of the request for the expression of interest (REI) to Philgeps and publication of bids in a newspaperof general circulation, were also accomplished.

Moreover, Engineer Victor B. Balde, Head of the National Cadastral Project Coordinating Office (NCPCO) said, “With the signing and submission of the adjusted Monthly Cash Program (MCP) and Project Implementation Plan (PIP) for the 60 projects to the DENR Budget Division and the preparation of the MCP and PIP for the remaining 58 projects, we are hopeful that the implementation of the cadastral survey in the ARMM will be in full swing early next year.”

To date, according to DENR-ARMM Assistant Secretary AlindatuPagayao, of the 60 awarded projects, 17 are under Office Verification in Progress (OVIP) and the other 43 are still under Field Work-in Progress (FWIP).

The remaining 58 cities and municipalities with an estimated area of 1,767,838 hectares are still to be surveyed.

Pagayao said,“Issues that maybeaffecting the implementation of the cadastral survey program in the ARMM may be borne from insurgency problems, non-participation from local government units (LGUs) due to apprehension that land area will be reduced drastically, and non-performance of consultants and lack of instrument in the execution of test observations.”

The NCSP, which is under the stewardship of the LMB and a priority program of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has already surveyed some 1,266 municipalities out of the 1,634 cities and municipalities of the country (except ARMM).

“Taking into consideration the lessons learned from the implementation of the previous survey projects are crucial in the execution of the succeeding projects in the ARMM because this is where we draw the success and the completion of the cadastral survey of the whole Autonomous Region”, Pablo concluded.