According to Gilbert Demei, BLS Director, his office and the land registration officers have been working diligently to ensure that properties, both private and public, are properly surveyed, demarcated, and plotted on maps following mandated procedures and processes of the Land Registration Program in Palau, also known as the “Cadastral Program.”
The number of property claims filed for lands in Palau when the Cadastral Program was first implemented skyrocketed. The total number of lots, at least those that were documented in the “Tochi Daicho” – a Japanese land registry for Palau during the Japanese occupation – is 17,137. This number, according to Demei, does not include claims for properties not covered in the Tochi Daicho.
According to Demei, BLS is mandated by law to survey and demarcate all of the lots by October 09 of this year.
“We are asking for an extension of the term of the program so that we may able fulfill our responsibilities of the land registration program,” he said. “There is just not enough time for BLS to post notice of claims to the lots – let alone surveying and demarcating them.”
There have been laws passed to extend the duration and completion of the program since its initial implementation in hopes that all land lots in Palau would be defined. However, unforeseen circumstances, which have ranged from weather conditions to inability of BLS to reach claimants to serve notices, to lack of funds, and at times lack of manpower, have delayed completion of the program.
The Olbiil er a Kelulau (OEK) has passed 5 acts – RPPL 6-31, RPPL 7-3, RPPL 7-26, RRPL 7-52, and RPPL 7-5 (the most current extension that will expire at the end of October 2009.) since 2003 to allow for the program to continue until it is completed.
Demei said that he has written members of the OEK to commend them on the recent bill that that the Senate is entertaining to extend the deadline of the program further ahead.
“We need time and funding to fully complete the requirements of the program equitably,” he said. “Land is our most valued asset and we will try our best to work as efficiently as possible to meet the deadline. However, we do need the support of claimants and everyone to make sure that the program runs smoothly and that no one is left out.”
The fate of claimants to the lots that have yet to be surveyed, including those not registered in the Tochi Daicho, hangs in limbo as BLS mandated duties to the lots ceases at the end of the month.
In related news, a bill (Senate Bill No. 8-100) was introduced in the Senate last month to extend the deadline of the land registration program by a year. The Senate has since entertained the bill and has passed it on its third and final reading; but it has yet to be signed into law.
