San Miguel, Bulacan—Holding their ‘emancipation patent’ or the land titles awarded by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 27, elderly agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB) came to DAR Secretary John R. Castriciones for advice last Thursday (04 June 2020).
“How could we transfer our land title to the next generation? This is causing trouble in the family of deceased agrarian reform beneficiaries,” a woman in the company of the heirs of agrarian reform beneficiary Rodolfo Sarmiento asked.
Sarmiento is the recipient of Emancipation Patent 406522 issued October 25, 1973.
Castriciones visited Barangay King Kabayo here to distribute some food packs to help ARBs cope with the Covid-19 pandemic. His meeting with ARBs revealed that the absence of proper transfer of land titles to the next of kin when an agrarian reform beneficiary (ARB) dies has caused conflict within many families here.
An Emancipation Patent (EP) issued under PD 27 or a Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) issued under CARP does not allow the heirs of an ARB to divide the lots into several parcels and apply for individual titles.
“The deceased ARB’s family should agree among themselves whose name the title would be transferred to,” DAR Regional Director Ma. Celestina M. Tam explained.
Castriciones directed the DAR Provincial Office to look at possible ways to facilitate the transfer of title to the proper person designated by the family of a deceased ARB.