The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is stepping up the parcelization of landholdings Collective Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CCLOAs) and issued new guidelines through an administrative order (AO) to generate, register and issue individual computer-generated land titles to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).
“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 or CCLOAs to the farmer-beneficiaries,” DAR Secretary John Castriciones said in a news statement issued on Wednesday.
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, DAR is mandated to immediately undertake the parceling of CCLOAs over lands that are not collectively farmed or operated in an integrated manner.
The DAR chief said he issued A.O. No. 01-2021
to provide a common understanding and interpretation on the previous issuance under A.O. No. 2 – 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 unorganized ARB groups.
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 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 hasten the division 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.
Parcelization is a process of subdividing and determining the exact metes and bounds of areas covered under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. 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.