The Department of Agrarian Reform in the Negros Island Region (DAR-NIR) is ramping up efforts to implement the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) Project this year, aiming to distribute more electronic land titles (e-titles) to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

As of yesterday, 116,000 hectares of land in the region have been field-validated under Project SPLIT.

“We will focus on this in 2025, for the redocumentation of collective certificate of land ownership awards [CCLOAs] wherein we can have electronic titles registered and added for distribution this year,” DAR-NIR Regional Director Lucrecia Taberna said over DAR-NIR’s Kape at Balitang Agraryo radio program.

The Project SPLIT involves the subdivision of collective land titles or CCLOAs into individual land titles of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

The issuance of e-titles formally recognizes and grants ARBs the right to own land and secure land ownership.

“I am appealing to all stakeholders and various CARP implementing agencies to join us in meeting this challenge to transform the lives of our ARBs under the DAR-NIR,” Taberna said.

In Negros Occidental, DAR distributed 2,038 e-titles, covering 1,368.8 hectares, to 1,235 ARBs during the visit of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. in Bago City in April last year.

In Cadiz City, 4,348 e-titles were issued to 2,220 ARBs covering 2,517 hectares also in Negros Occidental last December.

Project SPLIT, a flagship initiative of DAR with World Bank funding, started in 2021 and was supposed to end in 2024, but has been extended until 2027.

It is expected to benefit more than 1.14 million ARBs by providing them with individual titles to around 1.38 million hectares of agricultural land through the subdivision of CCLOAs. (PNA)