TITLE HOLDER. Presidential Assistant (PA) for Eastern Mindanao Secretary Leo Magno hands over the land title certificate to an agrarian reform beneficiary on Friday (July 7, 2023) in Davao City. Coinciding with the signing of the New Agrarian Emancipation Act by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., the Department of Agrarian Reform in Davao Region distributed electronic titles to 789 agrarian reform beneficiaries. (PNA photo by Robinson Niñal Jr.)
DAVAO CITY – In time for the signing of the New Agrarian Emancipation Act by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Friday, the Department of Agrarian Reform in Davao Region (DAR-11) distributed electronic titles (e-titles) to some 789 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB).
In an interview, DAR-11 Director Joseph Orilla said the distribution under the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling or Project SPLIT covers an estimated 1,017 hectares involving several landholdings situated in the different provinces of the region.
Orilla said the figure represents a portion of the expected attainment of 5,000 hectares for the first semester of this year.
Project SPLIT is a special DAR project being implemented through World Bank funding and involves the subdivision of about 1.38 million hectares of Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program-awarded lands with Collective Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CCLOAs) into individual land titles.
The contribution of Region-11 to the targeted number of landholdings amounts to about 102,000 hectares.
Orilla likewise mentioned that Project SPLIT is designed to stabilize the property rights of the ARBs thereby improving land tenure security, productivity and income.
“This was issued to ARBs of the region who were previously awarded CCLOAs. This time, it was given individually,” he said.
Condoned
Meanwhile, Orilla said at least 37,889 ARBs in Region 11 with an unpaid obligation of more than PHP2 billion will directly benefit from the New Agrarian Emancipation Act.
“It condones all the unpaid amortizations of the principal debt, including interest and surcharges. The government will also assume the obligation to pay the remaining balance of the direct compensation due to the concerned landowners under the Voluntary Land Transfer (VLT) or Direct Payment Scheme (DPS),” he said.
ARBs who have fully paid their agrarian amortizations will be given priority access to credit facilities and support services and shall be automatically included in the Department of Agriculture’s Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture for support services.
Undersecretary Milagros Isabel Cristobal of the DAR Support Services Office said that right after the ARBs are awarded the certificates, they will then organize and form the beneficiaries into cooperatives and will monitor them.
“(This is for them to) avail of training, skills, and support services. After agro-enterprise development we will look for a market (for them),” she said.
During his first State of the Nation Address in July last year, the President asked Congress to pass the law condoning the debt burden incurred by farmers from land awarded to them under Presidential Decree No. 27, Republic Act 6657, and Republic Act 9700.
The new law is considered the most significant piece of agrarian legislation passed since the whole country was declared an agrarian reform area by then-President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in October 1972. (PNA)
