Quezon City – The Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Executive Director Ma. Pamela P. Quizon, together with government agencies, private sector, and other stakeholders, pledged commitment to improve land tenure security during the 2022 National Land Governance Summit, organized by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) – Land Management Bureau (LMB), Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC), and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, held on 24 January 2023 at the Seda Vertis North, Quezon City.  

OIC Executive Director Quizon expressed full support to the enhancement of the Land Sector Development Framework (LSDF) 2019-2040, to primarily address the long-standing problems in the country’s administration and management of limited land resources, to include the record low levels of property valuation used by local government units (LGUs) and the hardly realized updating and implementation of Schedule of Market Values (SMVs) and property assessments.  

“The BLGF introduces reforms in real property valuation and assessment through the Proposed Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act (RPVARA), which was approved on the third and final reading at the House of Representatives. The RPVARA envisions a system that adopts the international standards and best practices of a single valuation base for taxation, regularly updated SMVs that insulate valuation from undue politicization, and comprehensive electronic database on property transactions to improve transparency, confidence, and accountability in the valuation process”, OIC Executive Director Quizon said.  

Director Quizon underscored that the BLGF is currently implementing the Local Governance Reform Project (LGRP), a 4-year project loan funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which primarily aims to strengthen the revenue generation and management of real property tax (RPT), improve local public service delivery, and strengthen local governance performance.  

“The LGRP is foreseen to contribute to the improved collection coverage, collection efficiency, and cost of collection by focusing on the project outputs (i) support institutional development and policy formulation for property valuation; (ii) implement a property tax valuation database and information systems; (iii) enhance the RPT administration for selected LGUs; and (iv) professionalize local assessors and strengthen the capacity of LGUs”, Director Quizon added.  

The LSDF 2019-2040 is a long-term strategic roadmap focusing on the thematic areas on land administration, land information systems and management, land management and governance, and land valuation and market development.