The Department of Agrarian Reform has subdivided 174,798.86 hectares of agricultural land to 112,783 agrarian reform beneficiaries through the implementation of Project SPLIT or Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling.
“The other regions have accomplished a total of 80,280.80 hectares, and we believe that they would follow these pilot regions after this event,” SPLIT national project director and Assistant Secretary Rene Colocar said, during the “Operations Problem Solving Workshop cum Policy Formulation Conference” on Monday, February 21, held in Cebu City.
Through the SPLIT project, lands distributed under collective certificates of land ownership award (CCLOAs), were subdivided and famer-beneficiaries who were previously awarded with lands under collective ownership would be issued individual land titles.
The DAR said 94,518.06 hectares were accomplished by Regions 1, 8, and 9; the pilot regions in the implementation of the project.
Colocar stressed that this event would serve as a venue for discussions of issues and concerns they encountered and formulate policy for more effective and expeditious implementation of subdividing the lands.
“We need to define and establish clear basic operations so that we can go forward through smooth implementation of the project,” he said.
The SPLIT project, implemented in 78 provinces, in 15 regions, started in November 2020 and would end in the year 2024.
Foreign Assisted and Special Projects Office Undersecretary Virginia Orogo said that this project would correct the mistakes of the past administrations.
“Collective ownership does not protect the property rights of our farmers because they do not have their own titles of their lands,” she said.
She, however, added there are many problems and oppositions in validating the lands.
“I am very optimistic that at the end of our activity, we would all come up with established resolutions to the problems that we would encounter in the implementation of the project,” she said.
The event, which will conclude on Feb. 24, is being attended by SPLIT implementers nationwide.