Cadastre and Cadastral Survey

Introduction to Cadastre and Cadastral Survey

  Cadastre is a technical term for a set of
records showing the extent, value and
ownership (or other basis for use or
CADASTRE occupancy) of land. Strictly speaking, a
cadastre is a record of areas and values
of land and of landholders that originally
was compiled for purposes of taxation.
  The cadastral map should show the boundaries
of each land parcel and in some jurisdictions
may also show its area and the actual length
CADASTRE and bearing of each boundary line. These
considerations may obviously demand a scale
somewhat larger than that required merely to
indicate each surveyed plot.
  The Cadastral survey program in the Philippines may be said to
have its beginning as early as 1903 when the American Civil
Government in the Philippines purchased in 1902, some

HISTORICAL 410,000 hectares of friar lands

OUTLINE OF  The formalization of the cadastral survey program took shape

with the passage of Cadastral Act No. 2259, on February 11,
CADASTRAL 1913. This has become the formal mandate that authorized the

SYSTEM Director of Lands to conduct cadastral surveys. The first

Filipino to head the Bureau of Lands was the former
revolutionary general, Gen. Manuel Tinio who held office from
1913 - 1914.
  In 1992, with the passage of Republic Act No. 7160, also
known as the Local Government Code of 1991, the functions
to conduct cadastral surveys, lot surveys, isolated and special
surveys were among the functions of the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) that were
devolved to the local government units (LGUs).

HISTORICAL  Nearly ten years later, in 2001, it was found out that not a
single municipality had initiated its cadastral survey due to
OUTLINE OF lack of technical manpower and financial resources of the

CADASTRAL LGUs. This prompted the DENR, during the stewardship of

former Secretary Heherson T. Alvarez upon the
SYSTEM recommendation of then Lands Management Bureau
Director Concordio D. Zuniga to get back from the LGUs,
the devolved functions to execute, supervise and manage
land surveys, through DENR Administrative Order No.
2001-23, dated August 29, 2001.
  provided the mechanism for the compulsory
registration of all landholdings covered by
cadastral survey. Land titling through Torrens
CADASTRAL System is the primary objective of the cadastral

ACT 2292 survey. The main output is a line map and the
metes and bounds of each parcel surveyed and
other data that relate to land ownership or land
tenure.
  The Cadastral Survey in the Philippines is a survey made
of extensive areas covering an entire municipality or city
consisting of several or many parcels of land undertaken
PURPOSE OF for the purpose of title clearance and land registration.

CADASTRAL  Cadastral Act No. 2259 which govern Cadastral Survey,

is intended primarily for the purpose of quieting title to
SYSTEM any land within a particular area by way of compulsory
registration proceedings and thus minimize land
conflicts.
  Some of the benefits that may result upon the completion
of the Cadastral Survey in the area include: agricultural
development; comprehensive and accurate data on land
resources of the country; facilitate land disposition to
qualified public land applicants; delineation of the
BENEFITS OF boundaries of all political units/subdivisions of the
CADASTRAL country as basis of a more accurate Internal Revenue
Allotment (IRA) for local government units; provide
economic data for land-based development studies; and
provide map-based data for zoning, land use
programming, and a more reliable tax mapping.
  The cadastral survey shall refer to the survey made to
determine the metes and bounds of all parcels within an
CADASTRAL entire municipality or city for land registration and other
SURVEY purposes. This type of survey is further classified into the
following:
  a. Numerical Cadastre – shall refer to a cadastral survey
wherein the bearings and distances of the individual lots
are determined from the computations based on the
actual ground survey.
 b. Graphical Cadastre – shall refer to a cadastral survey
TYPES OF wherein the bearings and distances of the individual lots
SURVEY are determined using transit and stadia, scaling from
photo map, and other graphical methods.
 c. Public Land Subdivisions shall refer to the subdivision
of A&D lands covering an area of more than 1,500
hectares.
  a. Project Control Survey – refers to the establishment of
main and subsidiary controls over the entire area subject
of the cadastral project.
Cadastral Survey as  b. Political Boundary Survey – refers to the
defined in Section 5, establishment of political boundary monuments defining
DAO No. 2007-29 the boundary lines of the entire city/municipality and
has the following their component barangays.
stages of activities:  c. Lot Surveys - refers to the determination of individual
lot boundaries and their corresponding area primarily for
the purpose of acquiring title thereto.
  The primary objective of the cadastral survey is land
titling. Any land use information that are obtained in the
process are gathered not for economic development
CADASTRAL purposes as we perceive them to be at present but for
additional information in support of tenure or legal hold.
CONCEPT However, data contained in the cadastral maps after its
approval, can be used by other government agencies for
whatever purpose/s it may serve them.
  The following are the output of the Cadastral Surveys:
Cadastral Maps (CM) indicating individual parcels and their
actual geographic position.
 1. Lot Data Computation Books
CONTENT OF  2. Lot Description Books
CADASTRAL  3. Monument Description Books
SYSTEM  4. Technical Description of all lots within the Cadastre
 5. Geographic Positions of Reference Points
 6. Land Use Maps and Land Use Registers
  7. Political Boundary Maps
 8. Tax Maps used for Realty Tax Valuation/Collection
 9. Numerical and alphabetical list of all

CONTENT OF claimants/occupants/owners
 10. Allocation Book
CADASTRAL  11. Cadastral Cost Registers
SYSTEM  12. Miscellaneous data on land surveys, land disposition and
titling, occupancy, profiles and other land and survey
information needed for planning and for land management
purposes.
  The Cadastral output as listed above is basically
composed of textual (nonspatial) data such as Lot
Description Books, Lot Data Computation Sheets, List of
Claimants, etc. and Spatial Data made up of complex
CONTENT OF geographic objects including network of lines such as
CADASTRAL lots, roads, rivers, etc.

SYSTEM  All lands within a Cadastral Survey Project, in the

absence of titles are presumed public lands. For this
reason, all claims therein are contestable by the
government.
 LMB records as of 2014 show that from
1913 to 2009, a total of 753
cities/municipalities or 46% of the total
universe of 1,634 cities and
municipalities, containing an area of
13,836,698.79 hectares were cadastrally
surveyed & approved. A total of 881
cities/municipalities remain to be surveyed,
as shown in the pie chart
  Cadastral lots and other details of the cadastral surveys are
plotted on reproducible materials such as drafting film 0.003
inch with polyster or mylar encompassing areas within

CADASTRAL
spheroidal quadrangle of one minute of arc in latitude and one
minute of arc in longitude (approximately 1.8 km by 1.8 km)
MAP and drawn in the Philippine Plane Coordinate System
Philippine Reference System of 1992 (PPCS-PRS92). Cadastral
Map sheets are approximately 54 by 54 centimeters in size and
carry a standard scale of 1:4,000.
  Sectional Cadastral Maps are drawn on larger scale such as
1:2,000; 1:1,000; 1:500; on the same size as the standard
cadastral maps to show tracts of land which appears too small
on the standard scale of 1:4,000. These lots are usually
residential lots in the poblacion (town proper).
CADASTRAL  Contiguous Cadastral Maps (CCM) on a smaller scale of
MAP 1:8,000 or 1:16,000, show parcels of lands which are too big to
be contained on the standard scale of 1:4,000. These lots are
forestlands, reservations and big undivided land holdings
consisting of hundreds or thousands of hectares within a
municipality.
Attachedherewithareexamplesoftwo(2)typesofCadastralMaps,Figure1,showsthegraphicalCadastralMap,CadastralMapping(symbol:Cadm),andFigure2,showsthenumerical(regular)CadastralSurveyMap(symbol:Cad).