The Department of Agrarian Reform on Friday backed a bill to hasten the subdivision and titling of lands and the use of the Certificate of Land Ownership Award as collateral for loans.
DAR Legal Affairs Office Undersecretary Luis Meinrado Pañgulayan, in a position paper, told Ifugao Rep. Solomon Chungalao, House Committee on Agrarian Reform chair, that the proposed measure would turn Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program-awarded lands into effective resource generation mechanisms and help ARBs improve their agricultural productivity.
The agency supported the passage of House Bill No. 3434, which it said “shall have a direct impact in speeding up the subdivision and titling of agricultural lands” awarded to agrarian reform beneficiaries under CARP and allow farmers to use their awarded lands as collateral in availing loans from banks and other financial institutions.
House Bill No. 3434 or “An Act Expediting the Titling of Lands Awarded Under the CARP, Lifting the Restrictions on the Utilization of Such Lands as Collateral for Securing Agricultural Loans, and Other Similar Financial Instruments, and for Other Purposes” was authored by Batangas Rep. Vilma Santos-Recto.
“The bill aims to speed up the subdivision and titling of lands under CLOAs arrangement and remove ownership uncertainties associated with CARP-awarded lands. It also intends to allow ARBs to use their awarded land as collateral in availing loans from banks and other financial institutions for the improvement of the land they cultivate, procurement of agricultural inputs and machineries, and establishment of agricultural facilities,” Pañgulayan stressed.
He said DAR has no objections to the noble intention of the proposed bill as it would promote social justice, effect sound rural development and industrialization, and establish owner-cultivators of economic-size farms as the basis of Philippine agriculture.
“Our only concern is that in drafting the proposed bill, we hope that they will take into consideration the rules and regulations mandated under Executive Order No. 26, Series of 1998, which provides for the legal basis for the use of awarded lands as collaterals, regardless, if the ARB has fully paid the amortization and if the 10-year holding period has lapsed,” the DAR official said.