Families living on Ilin Island in San Jose town, Occidental Mindoro province, were awarded land titles through the government’s land disposition program.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Registry of Deeds awarded 202 agricultural and residential free patents to the families at Barangay Catayungan in San Jose.
In September, regional government agencies also completed the distribution of 1,479 titles in the region. Awarded were 638 titles in Occidental Mindoro, 184 in Oriental Mindoro, 561 in Marinduqe and 96 in Romblon.
As a way of returning the favor to the government, Occidental Mindoro Rep. Josephine Sato urged the new title holders to plant at least 10 trees in their lands.
The awarded titles each covered an average three hectares of land.
On Ilin Island, about an hour by boat from the mainland, families rely on fishing. Many of them are classified as indigent by the government.
The Residential Free Patent Act (Republic Act No. 10023) allows for longtime residents to own titled property. Early this year, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu ordered DENR personnel to fast-track the land titling applications.
Ernesto Tañada, the DENR chief in Occidental Mindoro, said they were working on processing hundreds of land titles in Lubang, another remote island in the province.
“A land title becomes your safeguard from land grabbers. It is also something, that even the poor, could claim as their own and pass on to their children,” he said. —Maricar Cinco and Madonna Virola