• CHERYL G. CRUZ
Some 248 agricultural and residential free patents, covering more than 77 hectares, were distributed in Negros Occidental in 2023, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Western Visayas said March 11.
The Negros Occidental Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office handed 82 agricultural free patents, covering an area of 74.1534 hectares; and 166 residential patents, with a combined area of 3.2754 hectares, the DENR6 said.
“Free patents for residential and agricultural lands are given to qualified applicants in a much more simplified and practical administrative titling process, giving a sense of security to occupants or owners of alienable and disposable lands,” DENR6 regional executive director Livino Duran said in a statement as he lauded efforts of field offices “in making our services more accessible to the people, including the issuance of free patents to residential and agricultural lands.”
“It is one of the major services of the DENR and we are committed to further improve our services so that more of our clients can benefit from this. We have exceeded our targets for 2023 and we aim to do even better this 2024,” Duran stressed.
He added that DENR Western Visayas granted 2,204 agricultural and residential free patents in 2023, with total area of 882.097 hectares, exceeding the target set by the region.
Aside from Negros Occidental, PENRO Aklan logged the most number of agri patents at 508 with an area of 224.4297 ha., Iloilo Province, 280 patents with an area of 227.1206 ha.; Antique, 214 patents with an area of 140.2574 ha.; Capiz, 105 agricultural free patents with 125.4067 ha.; and PENRO Guimaras, 66 patents with an area of 61.3765 hectares.
In terms of residential free patents, PENRO Aklan gave out the most number of patents with 258, having an area of 9.4114 ha.; Antique, 211 with an area of 6.0446 ha.; Iloilo, 199 patents covering 5.9260 ha.; Capiz, 57 with an area of 1.8863 ha.; and PENRO Guimaras issuing 58 patents with a total area of 2.8090 hectares, DENR6 records show.
Republic Act No. 11573, signed by then president Rodrigo Duterte in 2021, governs the grant of agricultural and residential free patents, and amended provisions of Commonwealth Act No. 141, or the Public Land Act, and PD No. 1529, or the Property Registration Decree, to improve the process of confirming imperfect land titles. | CGC
