Land owners urged to avail of free survey

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources office has called on claimants of untitled lands in Central Visayas to avail of the subdivision survey for free.

At a media forum yesterday, DENR-7 announced that the regional office is willing to provide free service, particularly residential and agricultural lands’ survey.

The free service is aimed at fast tracking DENR’s land titling program by completing the survey of at least 1,978 residential lands this year, said engineer Leonisita Sembiante of the DENR-7’s Surveys and Mapping Division.

Of the 1,978 residential lands, 741 have already been surveyed by DENR7. "Our advice to the public before buying a lot, have it surveyed first," said Sembiante.

The subdivision survey, she said, is important to accurately define the boundary of the property and to avoid possible land disputes.

Aside from residential lands, DENR is also eyeing at surveying at least 1,246 agricultural lands.

So far, DENR-7 has not received any request for agricultural lot survey. Sembiante clarified that the free subdivision survey is only applicable to areas zoned as residential, and alienable and disposable public agricultural lands. Timberlands are excluded.

Those who wish to avail of the free service need to provide tax declaration of land, barangay clearance, court clearance, and deed of sale or extra judicial partition. Sembiante said an applicant may seek guidance from the municipal assessor’s office or may apply directly at the DENR-7’s Surveys and Mapping Division.

In a separate development, DENR-7 has exceeded its 2018 National Greening Program’s target by roughly two million.

The department planted over 10 million seedlings as of August 2, surpassing its eight million target.

The biggest share of seedling generation came from Negros Oriental, where a mechanized nursery facility was established, totaling to over 5.5 million seedlings. It was followed by Bohol province with over 2.5 million seedlings planted.

Cebu province came third with over 2.6 million seedlings, while Siquijor had over 123,000 seedlings. DENR-7 Director Gilbert Gonzales said the good performance in seedling production manifests the serious intention of the department to reforest denuded forestlands.

"Aside from achieving our targets on the number of seedlings, we also ensure that we have produced quality seedlings which shall be used to supply our various tree planting and growing program to achieve high survival rate in our established plantations," he said.

Also, DENR-7 reports showed that the seedling production activities across the region generated over 8,400 jobs.