Some 23,626 hectares of property in Negros Occidental, covered by collective certificates of land ownership award (CCLOAs), will be subdivided into individual titles by 2021.
The lands were awarded by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to beneficiaries in the province, under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
Some 20,452 hectares of the target areas are in the south, and 3,174.68 hectares in the north.
Provincial agrarian reform program officer Arnulfo Figueroa, the officer-in-charge of DAR-Negros Occidental II, said in a statement yesterday that they would explore all possible means to meet the target next year.
Figueroa made the commitment as he acknowledged that their area of coverage in southern Negros has the biggest goal in Western Visayas.
DAR targets to subdivide 36,353.3 hectares of landholdings region-wide next year, with 5,323.2 hectares in Iloilo, 2,265.79 hectares in Aklan, 2,472.91 hectares in Antique, and 2,664.27 hectares in Capiz.
Through the World Bank-funded Support for Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) Project, which was launched by the DAR’s central office on Thursday, the agency aims to improve land tenure security and stabilize property rights of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) through a speedy subdivision of about 1.368 million hectares of land nationwide.
DAR-6 director Sheila Enciso said she has instructed all provincial agrarian reform program officers in Western Visayas to strategize and expedite the process for the completion of the project implementation by 2021.
In 2020, the delivery of SPLIT target covering 2,960 hectares in Western Visayas was affected by the precautionary measures and restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Despite the negative impacts of the pandemic, which hampered the delivery of our targets, our DAR provincial offices are still trying to accomplish this before the year ends,” Lucrecia Taberna, assistant regional director for Land Tenure Security Program, said.*PNA
