The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has distributed electronic land titles (e-titles) to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in Bulacan province under the agency’s Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) Project.

The SPLIT project intends to fast-track the land subdivision or parcelization of the Collective Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CCLOAs) of about 1.368 million hectares of land nationwide.

Project SPLIT team leader Sylvia R. Sangbaan said on Thursday that a total of 17.0439 hectares of land were distributed in Bulacan to 13 ARBs.

Sangbaan said 34 e-titles of certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) involved farm lots covered in Cluster 2 comprising the municipalities of San Rafael and San Ildefonso.

Under the SPLIT project, she said the DAR would parcelize the awarded lands covered by a CCLOA.

This means that each farmer-beneficiary would be given an individual land title based on the actual area or a particular portion of the land he or she is tilling.

“The issuance of separate titles for each farmer-beneficiary is better because it enables them to have a clear and defined ownership of the parcels of land they are tilling. It protects and affirms the property rights of our ARBs,” Sangbaan said in a social media post.

Last April, DAR launched the regionwide distribution of e-titles to 300 ARBs.

A total of 455 hectares of land were distributed to ARBs in the region which is part of the available 34,000 hectares of land. (PNA)