Sarangani farmers get proof of land ownership from DAR

KORONADAL CITY – A total of 111 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in Sarangani province are now certified and legal owners of lands they have been tilling after the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) released on Monday their electronic land titles, officials said.

On Tuesday, Hadji Roldan Ali, Al-Haj, DAR-Soccsksargen assistant regional director, said the e-title distribution was in line with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s directive to DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III to improve the ARBs’ security of tenure.

He said the distribution of e-titles was part of the agency’s land parcelization activities to strengthen ARBs’ individual ownership of the lands they are actually tilling.

This undertaking is implemented under the Support to Parcelization of Land Through Individual Titling (SPLIT) Project, which aims to fast-track the subdivision of collective or co-owned Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CCLOA) into individual land parcels and issue individual titles.

Anecito Hibanada, former Chairperson of Fleischer Estate Integrated Multi-purpose Cooperative (FEIMCO), said that although the previously issued CCLOA gave them rights to till their own lands, they experienced several contentions as there arose countless issues on management.

“In 1996, FEIIMCO was awarded with 214 hectares. We encountered ups and downs as an ARB cooperative involving land ownership,” Hibanada said.

“But now differences and contentions will surely be avoided through the SPLIT Project and with God’s grace we proudly say that we have fully paid our amortization,” he added.

“Strengthening their property ownership will eventually lead to more successful agricultural ventures,” Ali said in a statement.

Cenon Original, OIC-Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II, said that to date, under the SPLIT Project, the DAR Sarangani provincial office has already distributed 807 e-titles to 555 ARBs, covering an area of 816.2879 hectares.

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