Landowners urged to replace land titles with e-Titles

LANDOWNERS are encouraged to replace the hard copies of their land titles with electronic titles (e-Titles) as the Land Registration Systems Inc. and the Land Registration Authority relaunched their Voluntary Title Standardization Program or the e-Title program.

The poor participation of landowners when the program was soft launched last Jan. 9 prompted the LRA to relaunch the program last week, said Eulalio C. Diaz III, LRA administrator.

The program is in line with the national thrust to streamline processes in government agencies.

“We feel the need to relaunch this and reintroduce to the public so that they will fully understand what it is really about and how it will benefit them in the future,” said Diaz.

The program is under LRA’s Land Titling Computerization Project that they started since 2008.

Under the program, landowners would be given the option to have their existing land titles replaced with electronic titles (e-Title), which according to Diaz would provide better security to owners against loss of copies. It would make processes and transactions with them faster and easier.

“Landowners need not worry because the eTitles are printed on unique papers with high security features. We feel that technology is already playing a big role in our daily lives now, and this is our way to start maximizing technology and its benefits,” said Diaz.

Copies of the titles will then be stored in their independent database allowing better security against fraud, tampering and loss.

For a start, the program is first launched here in Cebu and initially offered in the Registries of Deeds of Cebu Province and the cities of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu, Danao and Toledo before being implemented nationwide.

To convert to eTitles, lawyer Sedfrey Garcia, Marikina Registries of Deeds Operations Committee head, said interested landowners would only need to file a petition for voluntary standardization of certificate of title.

They would also be required to submit valid identification cards and duplicate certificate of title.

“If a representative will be processing for the owner, we will require other authorized documents for representatives of owners. The processing will only need five days to complete,” said Garcia.

The processing fee is P638 until July and P870.82 inclusive of VAT after their promo date./Reporter Aileen Garcia-Yap