DENR to put up 280 land monuments in C. Luzon

Correct survey to settle land dispute cases

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Environment officials here are set to establish additional land monuments in a bid to help settle land dispute cases and help local governments in their land valuation and taxation efforts.

About 280 land monuments called geodetic control points (GCPs) or “mojons” shall be established this year under the Philippine Reference System of 1992 (PRS92), reported deputy director Romeo Verzosa of the Land Management Service of the regional Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) here.

“The establishment of these mojons shall be guided by Global Positioning System (GPS) technology using satellite-fed information. Land surveys have never been as accurate and precise as they are now,” he explained, adding that correct survey is the key to settling bitter boundary disputes and land conflict cases that clog the local courts each year.

For this year alone, the DENR is set to settle at least 120 land claims and conflict cases as part of its land administration mandate, records showed.

Verzosa said part of the PRS92 activities is the recovery of 480 old control points that have been established as early as the 1930s, mostly found inside titled properties and isolated farmlands.

“These old control points must be recovered and converted into PRS92 format so that they can still be used as reference and tie points for land surveys,” explained Engr. Artemio Almazan of the Regional Composite Survey Team (RCST) tasked with the implementation of PRS92 activities.

Recovery of old monuments involved re-establishing or restoring those that have been destroyed or moved to another place as a result of being overtaken by development.

“What is important now is for local governments, corporate organizations, and ordinary citizens to take an active part in the effort to protect these land monuments so they remain to be accurate tie points in land surveys,” Almazan said.

Last year, the DENR entered into a Tripartite Memorandum of Agreement with President Benigno Ricafort of Clark Development Corporation (CDC), and President Jose Victor Luciano of Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC), for the “Adopt-a-mojon” program to preserve at least 62 “mojons” within the 28,000-hectare Clark Freeport and Clark Special Economic Zone.

A total of 29 local government units of Pampanga, Bataan, and Aurora have also signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the DENR under the “Adopt-a-mojon” program since 2008, placing under adoption 102 GCPs in these areas.