DAR to begin parcelization of land ownership awards

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) will begin the parcelization of collective certificates of land ownership award (CCLOA) to stabilize ownership, tenureship and control of the lands awarded to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

DAR issued the guidelines and procedures on the parcelization of landholdings with CCLOAs through Administrative Order No. 2, Series of 2019.

DAR Secretary John Castriciones said pursuant to Section 25 of the Republic Act (RA) 5567, as amended by Section 10 of RA 9700, DAR is mandated to immediately undertake the parcelization of CCLOAs over lands that are not collectively farmed or operated in an integrated manner.

He further explained that in the past decades, many landholdings were awarded to ARBs under a collective

and non-subdivided form of ownership wherein qualified beneficiaries may opt for collective ownership, through farmers’ cooperatives, associations or some other form of organizations for the issuance of CCLOAs.

“There are reports from the field implementers and civil society organization regarding disputes or controversies among ARBs with existing CCLOAs due to boundary conflicts, inclusions and exclusions of ARBs, and other conflicts resulting to the splitting of groups into sub-groups and co-owners opting for individual ownership,” Castriciones said.

He added that there are landholdings covered with CCLOAs, which have been acquired and distributed under financing from the Land Bank of the Philippines, where the government has not been able to collect land amortization, while the ARBs have not been able to fully pay the lands for them to become full owners, due to the difficulty in generating the Land Distribution and Information Schedule.

He said that through parcelization, DAR will subdivide and determine the exact meters and bounds of the areas, allocate lots for each ARB in a CCLOA, determine common use areas and portions with common service facilities, and establish areas capable of being alienated and disposed of by the government.

CCLOAs refer to existing and registered certificates of land ownership award issued by the DAR to farmers’ cooperatives, associations, other organized groups, or group of ARBs who are not yet formally organized.