TACLOBAN CITY – Eastern Visayas is set to receive the first batch of individual titles generated under the Department of Agrarian Reform's (DAR) Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project.
Regional Director Robert Anthony Yu announced that Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III will visit the region next week to distribute 2,591 electronically generated titles (E-titles), covering an aggregate area of 3,922 hectares, to 1,839 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) at the Visayas State University-Tolosa Campus auditorium.
The SPLIT project aims to improve land tenure security and strengthen the property rights of ARBs by subdividing landholdings covered by collective Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) and replacing them with individual CLOAs.
In Eastern Visayas, the World Bank-funded SPLIT project includes a total of 220,473 hectares of agricultural lands in different parts of the region covered by 17,496 collective CLOAs. As of press time, about 67,601 hectares have already been validated, while 3,922 hectares have been issued with E-titles.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has also ordered DAR to speed up the distribution of lands to potential ARBs during a cabinet meeting.
The SPLIT project ensures land security and stability for the region's farmers and rural communities. The distribution of individual titles will provide ARBs with legal proof of ownership and the ability to use their land as collateral for loans and other financial opportunities.