MANILA, Dec. 20 (PNA) — The Department of Education has entered into an agreement with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to hasten the titling of school sites continuously occupied by public elementary and secondary schools nationwide but have yet to be registered and titled to DepEd.
Education Secretary Jesli Lapus and DPWH Secretary Victor Domingo signed recently an agreement to facilitate the prompt issuance of clearances required for the titling process. “We need to address this issue on school titling urgently to ensure that school operations are not disrupted and our children will not be displaced,” Lapus said on Sunday.
The titling of public schools will protect public schools from encroachment, segregation, illegal occupation, and adverse claims of ownership by other individuals or parties.
“It will contribute to further improvement of the public school system,” Lapus added.
In 2007, DepEd signed an agreement with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) on the titling of school sites.
The agreement stipulated that DENR shall be responsible for the technical output which includes the survey of public and privately owned lands covered by Deeds and Donation, field validation, and preparation of draft proclamations for approval by the President.
DAR, for its part, shall facilitate the issuance of the Deeds of Transfer of school sites that are located in Resettlement Areas and Landed Estates, which it administers.
DPWH endorsement/clearance is among the prerequisites to DENR’s preparation of presidential proclamations reserving lands for public purposes.
DepEd will provide DPWH the profiles of 5,000 school sites that will require DPWH clearances. Selected regions in Luzon have been prioritized for this initial phase, with other regions soon to follow.
Lapus noted that cooperation from other government agencies is crucial in order to resolve this perennial problem.
DPWH, along with other government agencies, has given DepEd its assurance of full support in the local, regional and central office levels to speed up the issuance of suitability clearances.
DepEd earlier identified some 8,000 sites that have been continuously occupied by public elementary and secondary schools, which were donated by private individuals as well as government entities, but have not been transferred, registered or titled under DepEd.
Lapus said that the DPWH earlier had allocated another P2 billion for the construction of new classrooms and repairs of existing ones.
Source: Philippines News Agency
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