The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) would soon issue C-Titles or Computerized Titles to beneficiaries of the government’s agrarian reform program.
The distribution of C-Titles in Sorsogon City would be a first since the implementation of Project SPLIT, a P24-billion project funded by the World Bank.
DAR is implementing the project in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Land Registration Authority (LRA), Registry of Deeds, Land Bank of the Philippines, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
Nida A. Santiago, Sorsogon Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II, said they have already generated 76 C-Titles that will be awarded individually to 72 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in the province next month.
The land titles covering a combined area of 110.2848 hectares of agricultural land were taken from 12 Collective Certificates of Landownership Award (CCLOAs) that were subdivided recently by DAR under Project SPLIT.
“Our initial output is a portion of the 354.6172 hectares that have been prepared for parcelization and individual titling,” Santiago said.
“We targeted 8,461.1331 hectares in Sorsogon for the SPLIT project, and we have already verified at least 798.6433 hectares involving 84 CCLOAs spread across 13 municipalities.”
Santiago reported that around 6,255 ARBs in the province are expected to get their own land titles as a result of this project until 2024.
“The Field Validation Team’s (FVT) passion and commitment, together with collaborative working with the Registry of Deeds (ROD) here, resulted in a successful outcome,” she added.
The FVT is composed of a legal officer, geodetic engineer, processors, environmental social safeguard (ESS) support staff, and documenter.
DAR is implementing the SPLIT project in 78 provinces or 15 regions across the country that aims to subdivide collective certificates of land ownership awards into individual land titles, allowing each farmer-beneficiary of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) to have full ownership and possession of the land, as well as complete control over cultivating it as he or she sees fit.
Free legal aid
Meanwhile, 100 members from the agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organization (ARBOs) of Agpudlos, Marinorte Farmers Association, and JMP Farmers Association in San Andres, Romblon, became the first beneficiaries of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)-MIMAROPA’s “Lawyers to the Benepisyaryo” program in the province.
“Lawyers to the Benepisyaryo,” is a DAR project that gives free legal assistance and consultations to the ARBs.
Agrarian Reform Secretary Bernie Cruz witnessed the program’s launching in Romblon which includes the conduct of information dissemination, free legal consultation, and counseling to the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in the area.
The launching of “Lawyers to the Benepisyaryo” coincided with the DAR CLOA distribution and turnover of farm machinery and fertilizer to ARBOs in the said town.
Mimaropa Regional Director Marvin Bernal said the DAR offices in the province noticed that it was difficult for ARBs to go directly to the DAR offices to seek legal advice on their lands so they developed the “Lawyers to the Benepisyaryo” program. Under this program, the agency’s lawyers will personally visit the ARBs to hear their grievances and problems.
“We gathered lawyers from all over Mimaropa to give legal advice to the members of the ARBOs,” Bernal said.