Farmers are seeking updates on the implementation status and accomplishments of a World Bank-financed project that is aimed at expediting the distribution of farmland to farmers across the country. Launched in January 2020, the project, Support to Parcelization of Land for Individual Titling (SPLIT),  is financed through a $370-million (P20.4-billion) loan from the World Bank to split or subdivide Collective Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CCLOAs) covering over 1.3 million hectares of property, which was earlier turned over to about 750,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs). In a statement, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said farmers want to know if the project is "contributing to accelerating the actual distribution of land to farmer-beneficiaries or the opposite." "Ang pondo ng SPLIT project ay inutang ng gobyerno sa World Bank at tayong mga Pilipino ang magbabayad nito. Kailangang makita natin ang tunay na epekto ng proyektong ito (SPLIT project's fund was loaned from the World Bank and we, Filipinos, will be the ones to pay for it. We need to see the real impact of this project)," KMP Chairperson Danilo Ramos noted. For this year, DAR has allocated P6.1 billion or 42 percent of its P14.3-billion total budget for SPLIT implementation. "SPLIT is now the cornerstone of every program and project under the DAR. While the agency is busy splitting collective land titles for the individual proprietorship of ARBs, we also want to know the status of big landholdings and estates under dispute that are pending for distribution to farmer-beneficiaries. Case in point is Hacienda Tinang in Tarlac and Haciendas Murcia and Balincanaway, also in the said province," Ramos stated. The KMP will ask Congress to exercise its oversight function and probe the SPLIT project. "Vast landholdings across the country still need to be distributed as they are still locked under private ownership with decades-long unresolved land cases pending at the DAR," the official maintained. The DAR has recently created the Project SPLIT composite team to conduct the World Bank Gap Analysis Study (WBGAS) to determine appropriate interventions. Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrad Estrella III said the DAR wants to avoid seeing even one farmer being forced to pawn or sell their farm lot as it will defeat the purpose of SPLIT. The KMP, however, asserts that free land distribution and comprehensive support services program, and not SPLIT will be effective in uplifting the status of ARBs. Meanwhile, the group has also been proposing a few components of free land distribution under the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill. "Break up the land monopoly and implement the free, fair, and equitable distribution of the lands and eliminate all forms of oppression and exploitation in farming communities and thereby usher in genuine social justice," the group's list of recommendations began. It also called for the transformation of farmer-beneficiaries into efficient producers through the institution of an integrated, comprehensive, and holistic program of support services, and other state subsidies to improve their productive capabilities and for the overall agricultural development. In addition, the farmers want to "increase the income of farmer-beneficiaries and raise their standard of living through the promotion of cooperatives and other forms of mutual aid." They also called for installation of "the  social mechanism and practical measures that will secure the lands of farmer-beneficiaries from loss and prevent the restoration of land monopoly"; and the "launch of the thoroughgoing development of the agricultural sector and lay the foundation for national industrialization." On March 29, the KMP will lead activities for the Day of the Landless 2023.