As part of the Support to Parcelisation of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) Project, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Land Registration Authority (LRA) have signed a joint administrative order to expedite the development and registration of computerised individual land titles (C-titles) in the Philippines.
Luis Meinrado C. Pañgulayan, DAR Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Office said that the directive was issued in their department to offer individual titles to the agrarian reform beneficiaries who were included in the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme (CARP). This instruction became a reality with the implementation of Project SPLIT in 78 provinces and in 15 regions in the Philippines.
“The joint administrative order will expedite the generation and registration of computerised individual titles since it will no longer require submission of the Owner’s Duplicate Copy of the CCLOA title to the Registry of Deeds as a requirement for the processing of the C-titles,” Pañgulayan cited.
He stated that approximately 90,000 hectares of validated collective certificates of land ownership award (CCLOAs) are currently ready for registration, but only 4,000 hectares have been registered. The guidelines will effectively and efficiently revitalise the rediscovered synergy to ensure land tenure security and strengthen the property rights of agrarian reform beneficiaries.
The C-titles were distributed through the Support to SPLIT Project, which is a method of individually subdividing and determining the exact metes and bounds of the areas that are covered by the CARP, which involves awarded lots to the agrarian reform beneficiaries under CCLOA.
This process was carried out to ensure that the C-titles were properly allocated; while the entire practice of dividing collective titles into individual certificates of land ownership award includes the involvement of multiple government agencies.
The long wait is over: Farmer-beneficiaries receive computerised titles
Nearly three hundred people who benefited from the DAR in Central Luzon, Philippines, were honoured with more than three hundred electronic titles during a simple ceremony.
The DAR’s Support to SPLIT Project made it possible for the first time to create computerised titles, each of which represents around 460 hectares of land.
Officials from the Land Reform Authority also signed a Commitment of Support to ensure that more than 30,000 hectares will be targeted under SPLIT Project of Central Luzon and will be achieved on schedule for the benefit of over 17,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries.
On the other hand, a total of 94 agrarian reform beneficiaries in the province of Pangasinan received C-titles from DAR. The local agency in the province of Pangasinan has certified landholdings for parcelisation spanning 9,093.25 hectares, which has benefited 5,935 agrarian reform beneficiaries.
In addition, the DAR in the Bicol area of the Philippines (which is in the southern part of the country) has begun distributing its first computerised C-titles to agrarian reform beneficiaries who had previously been granted land under CCLOAs.
The conferral of 525 C-titles, covering a total area of 965.2426 hectares of agricultural land, onto 522 recipients of agrarian reform is intended to enhance the beneficiaries’ land tenure security as well as their property rights to their respective lands.
This region has distributed lands from the provinces of Albay (66.16 hectares), Camarines Norte (243.89 ha), Camarines Sur A (129.59 ha), Camarines Sur B (113.88 ha), Masbate (220.31 ha), and Sorsogon (191.38 ha).
Farmers have been waiting for the distribution of land titles for a long time and DAR has committed to releasing more computerised land titles to different regions in the coming months.
The C-titles serve as legal evidence and security for the beneficiaries’ individual land rights. The initiative is intended to encourage them to invest in their property and adopt new technologies to increase productivity and income.
