DAR intensifies validation of ARBs in Hilongos town

By JOSE ALSMITH L. SORIA
September 4, 2024

HILONGOS, Leyte – A farmer and former rebel, Armando (not his real name), expressed joy and gratitude that the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), through its Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project, saved them from paying exorbitant fees for the conduct of subdivision survey and applying for an individual land title.

Armando, 59, married, was among those awarded in the year 2000 with a collective Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA), after he and other comrades surrendered to authorities in 1994.

On Wednesday last week, August 28, Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer (MARPO) Ruben Rebato along with his field validation team (FVT), braved the very steep, narrow and rugged trail as they hiked for about an hour back to the mountainous Barangay San Antonio, this town's remotest village situated on top of a mountain, to continue the validation of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in the 23 more landholdings covered by collective CLOAs.

Rebato disclosed that they validated 75 ARBs listed in the 23 collective CLOAs covering an aggregate area of 180.8720 hectares of farmlands. He explained that this is just the initial stage. After this, a survey team will conduct the subdivision survey to locate the exact area of the beneficiaries before the individual land titles could be issued.

Under the World Bank-funded SPLIT project, landholdings covered by collective CLOAs will be subdivided based on the exact area awarded to each ARBs and replace it with individual electronically generated land title. This is to improve land tenure security and strengthen property rights of the ARBs.

Armando said to the DAR personnel, "Salamat, nakalibre mi sa gasto sa pagpatitulo."

He narrated that in 1984, their village was invaded by the new people's army (NPA). Many of them were forced to join, he reminisced. But in 1994, with the presence of soldiers in their village, they decided to surrender and were identified by DAR personnel to be potential beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program's (CARP's) land distribution, Antonio added.

Land distribution is DAR's contribution to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC), a whole-of-nation approach in addressing insurgency problem in the country.