Tuesday, July 31, 2018

TransCo spends P1 B for ROW settlements


Published July 6, 2018, 10:00 PM By Myrna M. Velasco

State-run National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) has already spent its full P1.0-billion budget on programmed settlements of right-of-way (ROW) concerns on properties, according to company President Melvin A. Matibag.
 “As to ROW claims, we have fully utilized our budget, which is about P1.0 billion,” the state-run firm’s chief executive has noted.
In December last year, TransCo inked a deal with the Land Registration Authority (LRA) for the titling of its properties; primarily those straddling right-of-way domains.
TransCo then indicated that the signed memorandum of agreement covers 12,679 kilometers valued at P38,500 per kilometer.
Nevertheless, that’s just a fraction of the properties that the company had cast for titling. Previously, the company estimated that its ROW settlements could run up to P280 billion to P500 billion.
Matibag had emphaszied that the move on engaging LRA services “would be more efficient and cost effective considering the very tedious procedural process of releasing requested land titles from different Registries of Deeds in different regions of the country.”
He explained the land registration agency “is the sole custodian of land titles and records and is the only entity that can provide data on land titles and digitized parcel maps that TransCo requires.”
The dilemma of TransCo on properly titling its properties had been a long-running problem, even the time that it had just been spun off from the National Power Corporation.
Matibag thus noted that this step, “will secure government from bogus claims presenting spurious land titles. Also, the data that TransCo needs is proprietary only to LRA.”
The scope of services that LRA shall be providing to TransCo would be on: verification of certificates of title; provision of printout and soft copy of digital parcel maps of titled properties; use of geo-spatial query service; issuance of certified true copies of certificates of titles or documents submitted in support of land transactions.
On TransCo’s part, it shall provide LRA with technical details required “to identify the properties registered in the name of TransCo and establish the technical coordinates of transmission lines.”

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