DAR goes paperless for faster subdivision of collective land titles

Engineers and documenters learning the KoBo Toolbox application at the workshop conducted by Project SPLIT.

BINALONAN, Pangasinan — The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has adopted a quick and efficient way to collect data which would help speed up the processing of individualizing collective land titles.

DAR Regional Director Primo Lara said the endeavor is under the department's Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project.

He said the SPLIT project intends to fast-track land subdivision/parcelization of Collective Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CCLOAs) and eventually issue individual land titles to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) who were previously awarded with lands and collective CLOAs under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

“This move is in line with the President’s marching orders to finish the land acquisition and distribution balance by 2024, distribute all government-owned lands and parcel the collective CLOAs to farmer-beneficiaries,” Lara said.

The KoBo Toolbox application is also installed in every documenter’s laptop for easy downloading and collating of gathered data.

The application that will be used by documenters is called KoBo Toolbox. It is a free and open-source android software which was created by a team of developers based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

Project SPLIT's Central Project Management Office (CPMO) chose Ilocos Region as the pilot region for the field testing of the android tool, which was proven to be highly effective by the environmental and social safeguards (ESS) documenters during the region-wide simulation workshop held this week.

“It’s paperless, portable, and efficient. Instead of bringing paper and pen in the field, our documenters are now trained to utilize a smartphone application where they can directly encode information to ESS forms and upload soft copies of attachments required by World Bank,” Lara said.

An instructor teaches the participants in getting started with the KoBo Toolbox application using their smartphones.

“This method not only minimizes physical contact between agrarian reform beneficiaries and members of the field validation teams (FVTs), but also greatly reduces the amount of time needed to gather information necessary for the parcellation process,” explained Lara.

FVT geodetic engineers, who also underwent a workshop in using the app, are also employing a similar paperless strategy in encoding the technical descriptions of landholdings via a computer program.

"The whole region thank all our mentors. We are very privileged to be the first region to be oriented on this tool. Mauuna tayo dito sa Region I, kaya galingan natin. Region I will be very serious and hellbent on maximizing individual titles that can be generated," Lara said.

The SPLIT project is financed by the World Bank amounting to P24 Billion. The Project will be undertaken by three national agencies namely: Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Land Registration Authority (LRA), in response to President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s directive to divide collective parcel of lands and constitutional mandate of social justice for ARBs.

DAR pabibilisin ang pagbaha-bahagi ng collective land titles ng hindi gagamit ng papel

BINALONAN, Pangasinan – Gagamit na ngayon ang Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) ng mabilis at mahusay na paraan upang mangolekta ng datos na makatutulong sa pagpapabilis ng pagproseso sa pagpaparsela ng mga kolektibong titulo ng lupa.

Sinabi ni DAR Regional Director Primo Lara na ang gawaing ito ay nasa ilalim ng proyektong Support for Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling o SPLIT.

Aniya, layon ng proyekto na mapabilis ang subdibisyon ng lupa / parselisasyon ng Collective Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CCLOAs) at kalaunan ay maglabas ng mga indibidwal na titulo ng lupa sa mga agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) na dating ginawaran ng mga lupain at mga collective CLOA sa ilalim ng Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

"Ang hakbang na ito ay alinsunod sa utos ng Pangulo na tapusin ang land acquisition and distribution balance sa 2024, at ipamahagi ang mga lupang nakatiwangwang na pag-aari ng pamahalaan, at iparsela ang mga CCLOAs sa mga magsasaka,” ani Lara.

Sinabi ni Lara na ang application na gagamitin ng mga documenter o mga tagatala ay tinatawag na KoBo Toolbox. Ito ay isang libre at open-source android software na nilikha ng isang pangkat ng mga developer na nakabase sa Cambridge, Massachusetts sa Amerika.

Pinili ng Central Project Management Office (CPMO) ng Project SPLIT ang Ilocos Region bilang pilot region para sa field test at workshop ng android tool. Sa pilot testing, ito ay napatunayan ng mga documenter ng environment and social safeguards (ESS) na mabisa at epektibo habang ginanap ang simulation sa buong rehiyon nitong linggong ito.

"Ito ay walang papel, portable, at mahusay. Sa halip na magdala ng papel at panulat sa field, ang aming mga documentors ay sinanay upang gumamit ng application sa smartphone kung saan maaari nilang direktang ma-encode ang impormasyon sa mga form ng ESS at mag-upload ng soft copy ng mga dokumento na kinakailangan isumite sa World Bank," ani Lara.

"Ang pamamaraang ito ay hindi lamang binabawasan ang pisikal na pakikipag-ugnay sa pagitan ng mga ARBs at mga miyembro ng mga field validation teams (FVTs), kung hindi binabawasan din ang dami ng oras na kinakailangan upang makalikom ng impormasyong kinakailangan para sa proseso ng pagpaparsela ng titulo ng lupa," paliwanag ni Lara.

Ang mga geodetic engineers ng FVT na sumailalim rin sa pagsasanay sa paggamit ng app, ay gumagamit din ng ganitong diskarte sa pag-encode ng mga teknikal na paglalarawan ng mga lupain sa pamamagitan ng isang computer program.

"Ang buong rehiyon ay nagpapasalamat sa lahat ng mga nagturo. Kami ang unang rehiyon na gumagamit ngayon ng app na ito, kaya galingan natin,” aniya.

Ang proyektong SPLIT ay pinondohan ng World Bank ng P24 Bilyon. Ang proyekto ay ipatutupad ng tatlong pambansang ahensya: ang Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) at Land Registration Authority (LRA), bilang tugon sa direktiba ni Pangulong Rodrigo R. Duterte na paghati-hatiin ang collective parcel ng mga lupa at bilang konstitusyonal na mandato ng hustisyang panlipunan para sa mga ARB.