Cordi schools hold no titles

STUDENTS may lose their schools due to land claims.

As of September this year, the region recorded 509 schools without ownership documents of which can be problematic according to DepEd Central Office Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Attorney Alberto Muyot because of the rise of adverse claims.

“Our problems are the 509, yes they are problems, but the 980 titles which were not perfected are also problematic because they give rise to what we call adverse claims,” Muyot said.

Only 330 school sites in the Cordillera Administrative Region have already considered by Department of Education (DepEd) with perfect titles registered by original certificate of titles and special patents.

DepEd-Cordillera Legal Officer Attorney Vanessa Flora said these adverse claims are composed refers to private individuals who have claimed school sites.

DepEd reported a total of 1,821 school sites in the Cordillera and a total of 980 proof of ownerships in the region in favor of DepEd including that of Deeds of Do- nation (741), Deeds of Sale (21), Tax Declaration (137), and Presidential Proclamations (81).

Flora said Indigenous People and Indigenous Cultural Communities have claims over the school sites.

“As much as possible all schools are mandated to have titles but if the classification of the land is forest, domain, timber, you cannot apply the title. There are process that DepEd could do with the said agencies to have a legal document which is not necessarily title just like for the usufruct agreement, and other possible agreements.”

Flora said most schools in the Cordillera are in ancestral domain, the DepEd has since coordinated with concerned agencies while conducting meetings and consultations with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, National Commission on Indigenous People including Department of Public Works and Highways discuss on how to facilitate the problem.

“It will require more resources especially funding little by little we will make sure na matitle an iyong ating mga schools but we cannot do that in just a single step,” said Flora.