The Chamber of Real Estate & Builders’ Associations, Inc. (CREBA) gladly supports the passage of Senate Bill No. 2757 amending, among others, Section 28(a) of Republic Act No. 9646 or the Real Estate Service Act (RESA). CREBA is objecting this particular provision which effectively prohibits real estate developers from practicing real estate in the Philippines. We are grateful to note that our proposals were taken into consideration in this amendatory bill introduced by Senator Antonio F. Trillanes IV.
While it does not oppose the entirety of the law which serves to regulate the practice of the country’s real estate service professionals, CREBA maintains that prohibiting real estate developers from engaging in real estate service violates their property rights enshrined in Section 1, Article 3 of the Constitution. There remains no logic in exempting natural or juridical persons directly performing by himself acts mentioned in Section 3 of the RESA with reference to his own property, from licensing or registration requirements – yet cover real estate developers. It likewise impinges on their jus ponendi or the right to dispose their property under Article 428 of the Civil Code.
We submitted a follow-up on our recommendations to Sen. Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., Sen. Juan Miguel F. Zubiri, Sen. Teofisto D. Guingona III and Sen. Manuel B. Villar Jr., as well as to our honourable friends in the Lower House to share our cause: Congo Rodolfo G. Valencia, Congo Amado S. Bagatsing, Congo Joseph Victor G. Ejercito and Congo Francisco T. Matugas.
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Along with food and clothing, shelter is considered one of mankind’s most basic needs. For indeed, how can one expect a person to live a decent existence without nutrition, clothing on his back, and a roof over his head. We are talking about decent, well-built homes, apartments, or other types of shelter where individuals and their families can grow and thrive as a social unit.
While the issue of availability is somehow being addressed by various government agencies and private sector groups, there is still a “snag”, if you will, that is causing a bit of a problem for many of our countrymen who simply want to have a roof over their heads. This is the issue of land.
We often hear horrendous accounts and traumatic stories about land titles, registration, and even distribution fraud, from people who purchase a house and lot or even a piece of land.
While there is a way to resolve a land title mix up, for instance, it usually involves going around circles or being passed around by various government agencies’ offices. As if that is not enough, the process of finding answers and accomplishing things at such offices can take a lifetime. Thus, the person who simply wants to purchase the land ends up wasting precious time and money, until solutions get too late and the buyer may simply have no need or no interest with such property.
As the country’s largest umbrella group of real estate stakeholders, CREBA puts forward a proposal to try and solve the problems of land administration, registration, and titling that are plaguing our housing sector. We are submitting to Senate CREBA’s proposal on the enactment of the Land Administration Reform Act (LARA) which creates for the purpose the Land Administration Authority (LAA).
Published in the Manila Bulletin July 2011
