Mayonito Bulaza, an agrarian reform beneficiary (ARB) from Davao del Norte province, was among the 2,672 farmers from across the Davao region who joyously waved their individual land titles during the region-wide distribution of electronic titles by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
The farmers were more delighted as President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. personally handed over the electronic land titles (e-titles) to 18 ARBs representing all recipients in the region on February 7, 2024 in Davao City.
After three decades of toiling a farm lot acquired through the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program since 1993, Bulaza finally got hold of a printed copy of his individual e-title.
“Kami nagpasalamat og dako sa presidente nga iyang gihatag sa amo ang indibidwal nga titulo. (We are very thankful to the President for giving us our individual titles,” Bulaza said.
He shared that there are more than 300 of them from the Island Garden City of Samal who have waited for years for their Collective Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CCLOA) to be parcelized into individual titles.
Bulaza was part of the second batch of ARBs who have been issued the E-Titles with an aggregate area of about 3,560 hectares during the DAR XI RegionWide E-Title Distribution Bagong Pilipinas held at the Rizal Memorial Colleges (RMC) gymnasium in Davao City.
In July 2023, President Marcos, Jr. also witnessed the online ceremonial awarding of e-titles covering an area of 1,207 hectares and involving more than 700 ARBs in Davao region.
The e-Titles, or computerized titles, are generated in favor of individual ARBs through the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) Project, which replaced the traditional paper titles with a more secure and convenient digital format.
Funded by the World Bank, Project SPLIT is the very first foreign-assisted project of DAR’s Land Tenure Security component.
DAR XI regional director Eugene Follante said that the Project SPLIT is the department’s response to the longstanding clamor of ARBs seeking the parcelization of their CCLOA.
Follante said that the distribution of electronic land titles empowers the ARBs by granting them easier access to credit, streamlined inheritance processes, and the ability to leverage their land for new income-generating opportunities.
For Jimmy Tabio of Sta. Maria town, Davao Occidental, obtaining an individual title would give him an opportunity to directly apply for a loan or credit.
He said the awarded CARP land, which is planted with coconut, corn, and bananas, has been a big help to provide for the daily needs of his family and to support the education of his children and now his two grandchildren.
Enrique Pabroa, a father of four children from Paquibato District, Davao City, shared that he waited for 20 years to finally receive an individual title consisting of 2.4 hectares awarded through CARP.
Pabroa assured that he will continue to improve and take care of the piece of land given by the government for the future generation of his family.
Nationwide, the Project SPLIT intends to parcelize CCLOAs to around 1,140,735 ARBs, covering an aggregate area of 1,367,833 hectares of CCLOA landholdings in 76 provinces and 15 regions.
The project has a total cost of P24.625 billion, comprising 78 percent loan proceeds (P19.240 billion) from the World Bank and a 22 percent GOP counterpart (P5.385 billion).
“The project is a significant step toward our commitment to CARP,” Follante stated.
During the E-Title distribution recently, DAR secretary Conrado Estrella III also vowed to continue to empower the ARBs by providing them with all the necessary support services to ensure their success as the food producers and providers of the country. (CLC/With report from JSGD/ PIA Davao)
