QUEZON CITY -- The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has issued guidelines to fast-track the parcelization of Collective Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CCLOAs) and its eventual generation, registration and issuance of individual Computerized Titles (c-Titles) to the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) through Administrative Order No. 1, Series of 2021.

“This move is in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s marching orders for the department to finish the land acquisition and distribution balance by 2024, distribute all government-owned lands and parcel the collective CLOAs to the farmer-beneficiaries,” DAR Secretary John Castriciones said.

Castriciones noted that pursuant to Section 25 of the Republic Act (R.A.) No. 6657, as amended by Section 10 of R.A. No. 9700, the DAR is mandated to immediately undertake the parcelization of CCLOAs over lands that are not collectively farmed or operated in an integrated manner.

Castriciones said that DAR issued the guidelines to provide a common understanding and interpretation on the previous issuance under A.O. No. 2, Series of 2019, which covers the parcelization of all landholdings with CCLOAs issued by the DAR to farmers’ cooperative, farmers’ association, organized group of ARBs, or several ARBs not organized.

On July 11, 2020, the DAR’s Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project was signed and approved by the World Bank (WB) and the Government of the Philippines and became effective on October 9, 2020, with an approved loan package of P24.6 billion. The project aims to provide the necessary financing support and technical assistance to fast-track the splitting of 1.3 million hectares of agricultural lands under CCLOAs into individual titles.

Among the major components of the SPLIT project is the enhancement of the regulatory framework for the parcelization and titling of CCLOAs. The operationalization of the said major components of the SPLIT project was based on DAR A.O. No. 2, Series of 2019, titled “Guidelines and Procedures on the Parcelization of Landholdings with Collective Certificate of Land Ownership Award”, issued on 20 March 2019.

Parcelization is a process of subdividing and determining the exact metes and bounds of the areas covered under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). It also involves the awarding of lots to ARBs in a CCLOA, determination of common use areas, portions with common service facilities and establishment of areas capable of being alienated and disposed of by the government.

“In case of landholdings where there are ARBs who were awarded lands covered by a CCLOA and tilling a particular portion of land, the DAR shall parcelize the same based on the actual areas they are tilling provided that each area awarded to ARBs shall not exceed the three (3)-hectare limit. Separate CLOAs for each farmer-beneficiary are better because it enables them to have a clear and defined ownership of parcels of land,” Castriciones said.

Castriciones said there are reports from the field implementers and civil society organizations (CSOs) regarding disputes or controversies among the ARBs with existing CCLOAs due to boundary conflict, inclusion/exclusion of ARBs, and other conflicts resulting in the splitting of the group into sub-groups, and/or co-owners opting for individual ownership.

“If you own part of a collective CLOA, it’s hard to make decisions on what crops to plant and how to plan your farm,” he added.

He said that upon effectivity of the administrative order, the DAR provincial offices (DARPOs) will undertake the inventory of all CCLOAs existing within their respective provinces based on the CLOA information system.

He disclosed that upon completion of the inventory and verification, the DARPO shall prepare a list of CCLOAs found to be within alienable and disposable lands, and shall be processed in the following order of priority: 1. LBP-Compensable lands distributed under the Compulsory Acquisition (CA) or Voluntary Offer to Sell (VOS) mode; 2. Government-Owned Lands (GOLs) which include: lands within DAR settlement projects and  lands turned over to the DAR by other government agencies and institutions are pursuant to Executive Order Nos. 407, Series of 1990, 448, Series of 1991, and 506, Series of 1994; and  Kilusang Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran lands distributed pursuant to Presidential Proclamation No. 2282, Series of 1983; 3. Landed estates; and  4. Lands under Voluntary Land Transfer (VLT) Scheme. (DAR)