Agrarian reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III hailed 2024 as a banner year for the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), highlighting the agency’s triple-digit growth in key land distribution programs, and vowing to distribute more land titles in the second half of the current year.
In a post-State of the Nation Address statement by the cabinet’s Food Security and Economic Development Cluster, the DAR chief reported remarkable achievements in the first half of 2025, translated into stronger food security and improved agricultural productivity.
“In 2024, we surpassed the 100,000 mark in distributed land titles. And this 2025, I foresee that we will reach 200,000 titles to be distributed. I believe our trajectory will be around 300,000 to 400,000 titles, which our farmers have long been waiting for,” he said.
According to Estrella, DAR posted a 580% increase in combined accomplishments under its Support for Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project and Land Acquisition and Distribution programs in 2024.
The agency distributed 102,338 land titles covering 120,343 hectares, directly benefiting 88,087 agrarian reform beneficiaries.
In comparison, only 69,897 land titles for 84,044 hectares were distributed in 2023, benefitting 73,399 farmers.
Since 2022, DAR has awarded 232,938 land titles with 21,876 titles for 25,159 hectares during Estrella’s first year, marking a 124% increase from the 17,640 titles covering 26,403 hectares awarded from March 2021 to June 2022.
Estrella said the SPLIT program also recorded extraordinary growth with a 3,416% increase from 2023 to 2024.
In 2024, DAR awarded 80,038 electronic land titles (e-Titles) covering 101,141 hectares, compared to 45,619 e-Titles for 60,586 hectares in 2023.
Moreover, Estrella said another major milestone was achieved through the implementation of the New Agrarian Emancipation Act or Republic Act No. 11953.
Under the law, the DAR would condone the agrarian debts of 310,773 farmer-beneficiaries.
In 2024 alone, 198,364 beneficiaries received certificates of condonation with release of mortgage (COCROMs).
To date, DAR has issued 383,701 COCROMs covering 416,381 hectares since its enactment in 2023.
