DILIMAN, Quezon City -- The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) conducted an orientation and conference on the department's Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project.

Seventy-five newly hired individuals attended the activity held at the DAR central office gymnasium, July 5, 2021.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Brother John R. Castriciones said the SPLIT project intends to fast-track land subdivision/parcelization of Collective Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CCLOAs) and eventually issue individual land titles to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) who were previously awarded with lands and collective CLOAs under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

“This project is massive. We will subdivide about 1.3 million hectares of lands covered by collective CLOAs into individual land titles and will be implemented in 80 provinces spread over in 15 regions. That is why we must hire people to help us implement SPLIT in the next three years,” Brother John said.

In his welcome speech to the new staff, he assured them of the DAR’s commitment to take care of them as they work on SPLIT.

“Do your job seriously! We will work as a team. We will give you what you need and compensate you fairly to fulfill your jobs, in return, we expect you to work hard,” Brother John said.

Undersecretary for foreign-assisted projects Bernie Cruz said the newly hired staff are expected to work double-time as the SPLIT project will be finished by 2024.

“These newly-hired staff will be working with Project Management Offices (PMOs) nationwide to facilitate the splitting of collective certificates of landownership award (CCLOA) into individual land titles,” Cruz said.

Cruz said the DAR regional offices nationwide are also hiring people for a quick and effective implementation of SPLIT.

He said that the Department of Budget and Management has already downloaded an initial P2.5 billion to DAR.

“At present, we are rolling out the project nationwide. We have created a project management office and are currently conducting land and CLOA validation all over the country,” Cruz said.

SPLIT project is financed by the World Bank amounting to P24 Billion. The Project will be undertaken by three national agencies namely: Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Land Registration Authority (LRA), in response to President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s directive to divide collective parcel of lands and constitutional mandate of social justice for ARBs. (DAR)