DAR E. Visayas distributes 2K more land titles before 2025 ends
By JOSE ALSMITH L. SORIA
December 31, 2025
CATBALOGAN CITY, Samar – The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Eastern Visayas closed the year 2025 by distributing 2,298 more land titles over the weekend.
DAR Assistant Secretary for Special Concerns Office, Rodolfo Castil Jr., represented Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III and led the distribution of individual land titles on Saturday, December 27 this year at the Samar State University (SSU) in this city to 2,396 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) coming the provinces of Samar and Northern Samar.
In his message, Castil stressed to the ARBs, "Mahalin natin ang naibigay ng gobyerno sa atin. At saka yung mga responsibilidad natin, wag natin kalimutan. Yun lang ang hinihinging kapalit ng gobyerno at ng mga nagpursigi para mabuo yan at maibigay sa inyo." (Let us value what the government has given us. And, let us not forget our responsibilities. That is the only thing the government, and those who worked hard to make this happen, are asking in return.)
DAR Eastern Visayas Regional Director, Atty. Robert Anthony Yu, likewise explained why the distribution rite was held here. According to him, Secretary Estrella instructed him to hold the distribution of titles in the provinces in order to bring the government closer to the people.
Of the 2,396 ARBs who received their individual titles, electronically generated under the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) Project, 1,829 were from the province of Samar, while 567 were from Northern Samar.
ARB Conrada Agte, 71, from Lope de Vega, Northern Samar, turned emotional that after more than three decades of waiting, she finally got hold of the individual title to the land she had been tilling for years. "Salamat nga nakakarawat na ako hini yana nga papel. Salamat nga damu gud man!" (Thank you that I finally received this document. Thank you so much really!) Agte exclaimed.
Another ARB, Rolando Danday, 42, with three children, from Majaba Island in this city, said, "Kaupay hini nga pinamaskuhan ha amon han gobyerno. Maiha na namon ini nga ginpipinamulat." (What a beautiful Christmas gift to us by the government. We have been waiting for this for so long.)
Meanwhile, Atty. Jana Dumaliang, Regional Director of the Land Registration Authority-Registry of Deeds in Region 8, expressed their continued support to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the DAR. She shared that they do overtime to deliver the expected e-titles from them.
The 2,298 e titles covered an aggregate area of 4,863 hectares of farmlands situated in the above mentioned provinces, strengthening the claim of the ARBs to land awarded to them under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
Yu further disclosed that providing land to the landless is DAR's contribution to the government's End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC) initiative, a whole-of-nation approach to solve insurgency problem in the country.