DAR confident to hit parcelization target

          TACLOBAN CITY – With the cascading of the revised guidelines to field implementers of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), parcelization of landholdings covered by collective certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) is expected now to move fast and smooth.

          During the first batch of the “Policy Orientation on the Revised Guidelines and Procedures on the Parcelization of Landholdings with Collective CLOAs” conducted in this city in mid-October this year through blended mode, many issues delaying the implementation of the project Support to Parcelization of Landholdings for Individual Titling (SPLIT), were addressed.

          DAR Undersecretary for Field Operations Office Elmer Distor said, “I have full faith in the SPLIT project. With adequate team, we would be able to accomplish within the period of three years.”

          Assistant Secretary and SPLIT National Project Director, Rene Colocar, disclosed that this project seeks to subdivide more than 1.3 million hectares of lands nationwide covered by more than 134,000 collective titles and eventually issue individual CLOAs to about 1,140,735 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) until year 2023.

          For 2021, Regional Director Robert Anthony Yu shared that Eastern Visayas has a target of about 1,878 collective CLOAs covering a combined area of 29,176 hectares for parcelization, which according to Distor, is the biggest among 15 regions.

          RD Yu stressed that about 15,310 ARBs in Region-8 awarded with collective CLOAs are expected to benefit this year by receiving their individual titles by yearend.

          Meanwhile, Yu added, about 129,000 ARBs from this region awarded with collective CLOAs with combined area of 206,436 hectares are expected to be benefited upon the completion of the project in 2023.

          “This policy orientation is intended to motivate us all and be in a united front as to how we will address this parcelization issue,” said Distor as he talked to participants from Central and Eastern Visayas regions.

          Further, Undersecretary for Policy, Planning and Research Office, Virginia Orogo, motivated the field implementers by stressing the role the latter play. According to her, “What we are doing is a noble thing, a noble work, because we are helping our land to be productive, and we are giving land to people.”

          “In this time of pandemic,” she added, “wala tayo ibang pupuntahan kundi lupa. Yan lamang ang nagbibigay sa atin ng pagkain. We continue to live because of the food we eat on the table, Orogo explained.”

This Php 24-billion SPLIT project is funded by the World Bank wherein 78 percent comprise the loan proceeds, while 22 percent serves as government counterpart. ###