The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Region 6 through its Licences, Patents, and Deeds Division (LPDD) and the respective Provincial and Community Environment and Natural Resources Offices (PENROs/CENROs) bares its accomplishments for CY 2023 in terms of the distribution of agricultural and residential free patents.

Former President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11573 in 2021 which became the new law that governs the grant of agricultural and residential free patents. It amended certain provisions of the Commonwealth Act No. 141 known as the “Public Land Act” and PD No. 1529 or the “Property Registration Decree”, aiming to improve the process of confirming imperfect land titles.

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.

In CY 2023, the DENR 6 field offices handed over 1,255 agricultural free patents totalling an area of 852.7443 hectares (ha). PENRO Aklan had the greatest number of patents issued at 508 with an area of 224.4297 ha. Iloilo Province distributed 280 patents with CENROs Guimbal, Barotac Nuevo, and Sara granting 165, 53, and 62 patents respectively with an area of 227.1206 ha.; Antique handed over 214 patents with an area of 140.2574 ha., comprised of 101 patents from CENRO Belison and 113 coming from CENRO Culasi. PENRO Capiz issued 62 patents while CENRO Mambusao issued 43 totalling to 105 agricultural free patents sizing 125.4067 ha. Meanwhile, PENRO Guimaras distributed 66 patents with an area of 61.3765 ha. and PENRO Negros Occidental handed 82 patents having an area of 74.1534 ha., with CENRO Bago City issuing a single patent, CENRO Cadiz City with 36 and CENRO Kabankalan City handing out 45 agricultural free patents

In terms of residential free patents for CY 2023, a total of 949 patents were issued by DENR 6 field offices with an area of 29.3527 hectares. Once again, PENRO Aklan gave out the most number of patents with 258, having an area of 9.4114 ha.;  Antique issued 211 with an area of 6.0446 ha., comprised of 126 from CENRO Belison and 85 from CENRO Culasi. In Iloilo, a total of 199 patents covering 5.9260 ha. were given, with CENRO Guimbal issuing 82 residential patents and CENRO Barotac Nuevo and CENRO Sara handing out 58 and 59 respectively. Moving on to Negros Occidental, the field offices of CENRO Bago City granted 72 patents, Kabankalan City with 50, and CENRO Cadiz City having released 44 patents with total of 166 and a combined area of 3.2754 ha. PENRO Capiz on the other hand issued 32 patents while CENRO Mambusao released 25 with a total of 57 from the province of Capiz with an area of 1.8863 ha. Wrapping up the list is PENRO Guimaras issuing 58 patents with a total area of 2.8090 hectares.

Combining both agricultural and residential free patents, DENR Western Visayas granted a total of 2,204 with a total area of 882.097 hectares, exceeding the target set by the region for the year 2023.

“I laud the efforts of our 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 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,” Regional Executive Director Livino B. Duran said.

Details
Parent Category: News & Events
Category: Photo Releases
Published: 06 March 2024