DAR chief orders swift land distribution, support to farmers

ANGELES, Pampanga—“Let us be proactive in serving our farmers through land distribution and provision of much-needed support services.”

This was what Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III said during the conclusion of the DAR 2023 yearend performance review and planning conference held in Angeles City on March 7.

The activity was conducted to ensure that targets were met and the development thrusts of the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. were integrated into the programs and services of DAR.

The Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project under the agrarian reform program endeavors to cover more government-owned agricultural lands for distribution to landless farmers.

Estrella said foremost in his directive for the department is to increase the issuance of individual certificates of landownership award (CLOAs) and to speed up giving various support services to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

“Our President, from the beginning, has been championing the cause of the small farmers. We assure you that all our efforts will be in their best interest and the improvement of the agricultural sector,” Estrella said.

“We will exhaust all means to distribute to the ARBs their land titles immediately. We will do our best to finish the distribution before the end of the President’s term in 2028. Once these titles are in their hands, nobody can deny them their right to their lands,” Estrella said.

The SPLIT project aims to subdivide the collective CLOAs into smaller farm lots, granting ARBs full ownership and possession of their land shares.

He added that since the landholdings were awarded through the Collective CLOAs, as soon as the ARBs receive their individual titles, they will be covered by RA 11953 or the New Agrarian Emancipation Act, which condones all agrarian reform debt, including interests, penalties, and surcharges incurred by ARBs from the lands awarded to them by the government.

The Secretary said the department will facilitate the land title processing with partner government agencies so that the DAR can speed up their issuance.

“Land distributed under the Project SPLIT will improve their land tenure