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PHILIPPINE HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF CADASTRAL SYSTEM

The Cadastral survey program in the Philippines may be said to have its beginning as early as 1903 when the American Civil Government in the Philippines purchased in 1902, some 410,000 hectares of friar lands and had them surveyed and allocated to the occupants under a scheme of agrarian reform. Actual inauguration of cadastral survey projects under the present numbering system however, begun in November 1909 with the first project numbered as Cadastral Project No. 1 covering the town of Pilar Province of Bataan. American surveyors exclusively conducted the cadastral survey from 1909 to 1915. The participation of American surveyors was gradually reduced until 1921 when the execution of surveys were all done by Filipino surveyors. The formalization of the cadastral survey program took shape with the passage of Cadastral Act, Act 2259, on February 11, 1913. This has become the formal mandate that authorized the Director of Lands to conduct cadastral surveys.

Act 2259, provided the mechanism for the compulsory registration of all landholdings covered by cadastral survey. Land titling thru Torrens System is the primary objective of the cadastral survey. The main output is a line map and the metes and bounds of each parcel surveyed and other data that relate to land ownership or land tenure.

ABOUT CADASTRAL SURVEY

The Cadastral Survey in the Philippines is a survey made of extensive areas covering an entire municipality or city consisting of several or many parcels of land undertaken for the purpose of title clearance and land registration.

Cadastral Act 2259 which govern Cadastral Survey, is intended primarily for the purpose of quieting title to any land within a particular area by way of compulsory registration proceedings and thus minimize land conflicts.

The owners of lots surveyed must lay claim to their land holdings and must prove their ownership during the subsequent court proceedings because failure on their part to do so may give the court no choice but to declare these lands as public lands.

Agricultural development, realization of Municipal Land Use Plan and more accurate Tax Mapping, are some of the benefits that may result upon completion of the Cadastral Survey in the area.