QUEZON CITY -- The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) conducted a three-day policy orientation on the revised guidelines and procedures on the parcelization of landholdings with collective certificates of land ownership award (CCLOAs) covering an aggregate area of 1.36- million of agricultural lands nationwide.

The orientation was attended by personnel from regions IV, IV-A, and V involved in the parcelization of lands implemented under the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project. 

SPLIT project aims to fast-track land subdivision/parcelization of CCLOAs and eventually issue individual land titles to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) who were previously awarded with lands and collective CLOAs under the CARP.

Assistant Secretary and concurrent SPLIT National Project Director Rene Colocar said this activity would equip the personnel with additional knowledge to speed up the  objective of giving the ARBs land tenure security and strengthen their rights to their property. 

“We discussed the key instrument to determine the legal ownership of the ARBs. We created a framework on how to achieve this and resolve various issues and concerns we encounter as we implement the parcelization,” Colocar said.

The SPLIT project would benefit about 1.1- million ARBs in 78 provinces, in 15 regions. The implementation started in November 2020 and will end in the year 2024.

On the other hand, SPLIT Deputy National Project Director Joey Sumatra explained the project’s process flow on parcelization: “First we conduct current CCLOA inventory, then we would validate them in the field. We would also conduct a survey before the generation and issuance of individual CLOAs.”

“The process looks so simple but it is not an easy task because there are many problems in the field such as disputes or controversies among the ARBs with existing CCLOAs due to boundary conflicts, 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,” Sumatra said.

He added that this orientation would be a great help for them to successfully implement the parcelizations of the said lands. 

The orientation was held in Lucena City, Quezon, on October 25-27, 2021. (DAR)