Brief History of Land
Management Bureau
Brief History
The Land Management Bureau (and the regional Land
Management Sector) was organized on September 2,
1901 under Act 218 as the Insular Bureau of Public
Lands (IBPL) with the mandate of supervising the
survey and distribution of public lands in the
Philippine Islands. William Tipton was appointed as
the first chief of the IBPL. Under his supervision, the
Bureau planned out a system for the survey of the
archipelago and in 1903 implemented Act 926 or the
first Public Land Act of the country which became the
basis of public land disposition thereafter.
Brief History
Disposition under this law was done by way of
homestead, free patent, sale and lease of public lands
suitable for agriculture. The name Insular Bureau of Public
Land was later changed by virtue of Act 1470 to the Bureau
of Lands, the name became popularly known to the masses
who are the direct beneficiary of public agricultural lands
for distribution.
Brief History
The Bureau of Lands was likewise mandated to
administer the distribution of friar lands under Act 1120
in 1930. It is the first land reform program in the country
as vast tract of the most productive agricultural lands
were purchased by the Insular Government from religious
orders and agricultural corporations and sold to actual
occupants and settlers.
Brief History
Introduction of Cadastral Survey
In order to expedite public land distribution, then Director of Lands Chas
H. Sleeper introduced cadastral surveying, a public land survey that
covers an extensive area, usually an entire municipality, subdividing the
same into parcels for purposes of public land distribution. The first
cadastral survey project (Cadastral Project No. 1) was conducted in Pilar,
Bataan in November 1908. In 1913, Act No. 2259, otherwise known as the
Cadastral Act, was implemented providing for a procedure of judicial
adjudication of public lands. Under his leadership, he established the
first Survey School in Manila High School (MHS) sometime in 1908 to train
Filipino surveyors. It was later transferred to the Philippine School of
Trade and Arts (PSTA). The first Filipino to head the bureau was the
former revolutionary general, Gen. Manuel Tinio which held office from
1913 - 1914.
Brief History
Amendment of Act 926
Finding the potential impact of the disposition activity
for the people and for the economy as a whole, Director
Rafael Corpus chartered the revision of Act 926 to
increase patent distribution. The Second Public Land Act
(Act 2874) was thus enacted on 1919 in order to hasten
the disposition of public agricultural lands to the
Filipinos by introducing the system of land classification
and increasing the homestead area from sixteen (16)
hectares to twenty four (24) hectares.
Brief History
Amendment of Act 926
Under the leadership of Director Jose B. Vargas, the Survey
School of the Bureau was transferred to the University of the
Philippines (UP), College of Engineering in 1925. It was also
during this time that the Bureau of Lands was divided into nine
(9) inspection district and thirty two (32) district land offices
in order to decentralize land surveying and processing of land
patent application to the provinces. However, the appointment
of district land officers were done by designation only among
surveyors, public land inspectors, land attorneys, and clerks.
Brief History
Enactment of Commonwealth Act No. 141
It is only in 1939, during the incumbency of Director Jose P. Dans,
the position of District Land Offices (DLOs) was formally created
under Executive Order No. 246, DLOs were authorized for the first
time to render decisions on important matters. During the advent
of the Commonwealth Government, Commonwealth Act No. 141,
the Public Land Act of 1936 was enacted which up to now is still
the governing law on our public lands.
Before the start of the war, the bureau was able to issue a total of
93,694 patents and had conducted a total of 289 cadastral surveys
by the Bureau, the last being Cad – 289 in Manay, Davao Oriental
for judicial titling.
Brief History
In 1953, the Bureau of Lands entered the era of
modernization under the leadership of Director Zoilo
Castrillo, with the introduction of IBM and Remington
Rand, produced computing machines capable of handling
bulk computations. The bureau became the most
advanced government agency in the Philippines in terms of
electronic computing. This effort was made in order to
respond to the need to speed up the distribution of public
agricultural lands in the rural area due to the agrarian
unrest in the countryside and to reconstruct records
damaged from the war. From 1950 to 1960, 1.4 million
hectares of agricultural lands were distributed by the
bureau which double that of the 1930-1940 period.
Brief History
Devolution of functions
In 1972, Republic Act No. 6516 was enacted
authorizing the district land officers in every province
to sign patents not exceeding five (5) hectares thereby
fully devolving the functions to the district offices.
Because of the devolution, more than two (2) million
hectares of agricultural land was distributed by the
Bureau of Lands from 1970 to 1980 under the
leadership of then Director Ramon Casanova.
Brief History
Reorganization of the DENR
Executive Order No. 192 organized the Department of
Environment of Natural Resources (DENR) in June 1987.
The new organizational set - up integrated the Bureau
of Lands District Land Offices to the field offices of the
DENR and transformed the Bureau’s Central Office to
the Land Management Bureau under this set-up LMB
became a staff bureau. The re-organized Bureau
spearheaded the distribution of public agricultural
lands through the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program (CARP) of the government distributing 1.32
million hectares to the rural community.
Brief History
Reorganization of the DENR
For more than a century, the Bureau is in the forefront of the
effort of the government to promote social equity by distributing
public agricultural lands to the rural masses. From 1901 to 2006,
the then Bureau of Lands and the present Land Management
Bureau and the Land Management Sector of the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources is true to its mandate of
serving the Filipino people by alleviating poverty and promoting
social equality through public land distribution.
