111 Sarangani ARBs now land owners
The parcelization of land is in line with the directive of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III to improve the ARBs’ security of tenure
The Department of Agrarian Reform in Region 12 announced on Sunday that it has provided electronic land titles or e-titles to 111 agrarian reform beneficiaries in the province of Sarangani as part of the agency’s land parcelization activities.
The DAR-12 said that the provision of land titles was in line with the agency’s goal to strengthen the ARBs’ individual ownership of the lands they are actually tilling.
It was implemented under the Support to Parcelization of Land Through Individual Titling Project, which aims to fast-track the subdivision of collective or co-owned Certificate of Land Ownership Award into individual land parcels and issue individual titles.
Anecito Hibanada, former chairperson of Fleischer Estate Integrated Multi-purpose Cooperative, disclosed that although the previously issued CCLOA gave them rights to till their own lands, they experienced several contentions from countless issues on management.
“In 1996, FEIIMCO was awarded with 214 hectares. We encountered ups and downs as an ARB cooperative involving land ownership. But now differences and contentions will surely be avoided through the SPLIT Project and with God’s grace we proudly say that we have fully paid our amortization,” Hibanada said.
In a ceremonial distribution of e-titles, DAR-12 assistant regional director H. Roldan Ali, Al-Haj said that he recognized how the ARBs benefited from tilling their lands as it became a way for them to provide for the necessities of life, send their children to school and improve their living conditions.
“The parcelization of land is in line with the directive of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III to improve the ARBs’ security of tenure. Strengthening their property ownership will eventually lead to more successful agricultural ventures,” Al-Haj said.
Meantime, Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II Cenon Original said that under the SPLIT Project, the DAR provincial office of Sarangani has already distributed 807 e-titles to 555 ARBs, covering an area of 816.2879 hectares.