Undistributed land titles in Central Luzon are now down to less than a thousand after 75 percent of them were successfully awarded to farmer-beneficiaries.
Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary John R. Castriciones said Tuesday, June 15, that a total of 2,815 out of the 3,763 undistributed certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) have already been given to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in the region.
Regional Director Maria Celestina M. Tam explained that 948 more land titles remained undistributed since many of the farmer-beneficiaries couldn't be located and were deemed to have relocated elsewhere. Meanwhile, others have no records at all at the civil registry offices.
Depsite this, Catriciones commended officials and staff of the DAR-Central Luzon for a “job well done”.
DAR-Pampanga was recognized as the best performing provincial office for delivering all of its pending 1,180 land titles as of April 30 to the rightful beneficiaries.
DAR-Zambales also distributed all 140 land titles while DAR-Bataan has turned over 583 undistributed land titles to their owners.
“All land titles that have been registered and turned over to the DAR office should be distributed right away to give justice to the beneficiaries who have waited for too long for their most cherished dream – the land titles,” Castriciones said.
“Once these land titles are turned over to the DAR, there is already a presumption of regularity and, therefore, these should be distributed right away,” he added.