The Driver of Economic Reform is Good Governance (Sec. 28, Article IV, Practice of Real Estate Service)

Opinion

Good governance is most often can be considered as the driver of change. If it is not well driven, then it is pathetic. The state of governance in land administration in our country today is very weak. It is because of conflicting and competing interests in the implementation process.

On the side of the planner or the one who laid the necessary framework, it is done through an iterative process during the planning stages with complementing measure to preserve and protect the environment.

The planner always considers all the advantages for general welfare and interests. But on the side of the implementer, it is often influenced with various interests. Most common of these interests is the personal interest, and it is also common to some of the “politicos”.

The holistically done policy/framework will not be implemented anymore because of hidden agenda/interests, or may be an interest to fraudulent act and other factors that would greatly affect the sound land administration and management.

The important land law in our daily lives, for now, in my own opinion is the RESA Law or otherwise known as the Real Estate Service Act of 2009.

Let us consider the Act that provides exemptions (Sec. 28, Article IV, Practice of Real Estate Service) constituting the Practice of Real Estate Service. The provisions of R.A. No. 9646 and the IRR shall not apply to the following;

(a) Any person, natural or juridical, who shall directly perform by himself/herself the acts mentioned in Section 3 hereof with reference to his/her or its own property, except real estate developers who are regulated by and registered with the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) pursuant to law and other resolutions/regulations such as but not limited to Presidential Decree (PD) 957, as amended, and Batas Pambansa Blg. 220 and their Implementing Rules and Regulations;

Providing decent housing/ homes, is also formed part of real estate services, and likewise, it is also the work of the real estate developers. These developers are engaging in real estate services involving real estate transactions. Real Estate Development also formed part of real estate services and transactions, and this is one of the real estate developer’s social obligations and functions. Mostly Real estate developers are corporate entities, engaging in real estate business, thus the managing owners, partners or incorporators should also be licensed real estate practitioners, as provided in Section 32, Article IV, which states, among others, that;

“corporations or partnership engaging in the business of real estate service should be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Persons acting for the partnership or corporation should be registered and licensed real estate brokers, appraisers or consultants”.

Therefore, for the harmony of among the real estate practitioners, since natural persons engaging in real estate transaction or otherwise known as the real estate practitioners, who are also regulated by and registered with the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) pursuant to law and other resolutions/regulations such as but not limited to Presidential Decree (PD) 957, as amended, and Batas Pambansa Blg. 220 and their Implementing Rules and Regulations, with the foregoing considerations, real estate developers should likewise be licensed real estate practitioners.

If this Act shall not be administered well, or good governance is weak in implementing this Act, and if it is judicially or administratively infirmed, the same scenario will happen, like tax evasion on the issue of lowering the valuation of the property transacted (i.e. not reflecting the true value of the lot purchased/sold), reflecting the lower value in establishing the market value as payment of taxes in a sense of affordability among the stakeholders, existence of more “colorum” brokers, participation of some lawyers in tax evasion by tolerating a double-deed of sale, indiscriminate issuance of fake titles, etc. These are the issues, concerns and problems that our government may look upon into and challenges to take appropriate action to minimize if not fully eradicate. In other countries, this type of land law is smoothly implemented and put into practice since most of the stakeholders are aware of the underlying risk in dealing with real estate transactions and also aware of the consequences in violating such law. Hence, with proper implementation, this will provide more employment.

Suggested reform is to continue educating, not only real estate practitioners, but all the stakeholders as well. It is always been said that real estate contributes 75% in our country's wealth.

In order that our economy will become better as what it used to be, let us always remember that one of the driver of economic reform is GOOD GOVERNANCE.