The Project SPLIT (Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling) is a FIX that is long overdue and passed on from previous administrations to the present, when the issuance of Collective CLOAS, in lieu of Individual CLOAS or Land Titles to ARBs, was resorted to expedite land acquisition and distribution.

Working back from more than 20 years ago, Project SPLIT will be the final chapter of the longest-running Agrarian Reform Program (50 years from P.D. 27), covering 5 Million Hectares (15% of total land area) of land for almost 3 Million ARBs (Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries) nationwide.

Background

From 1992 to 1998, the DAR distributed 1,900,039 hectares, half of which were government-owned lands, and transferred large tracts of land under Mother CLOAS or Collective CLOAS (CCLOAS) issued to farmer organizations and cooperatives rather than to individual land tillers and farm workers.

After the issuance of the CCLOAS, the subdivision, and individual titling should have followed, but as years and administrations passed by, about 1,368,883 hectares of CCLOAS remained with mere annotations of the names instead of clear ownership (individual CCLOAS) to more than 1.1 Million ARBs nationwide.

Project SPLIT, World Bank-Assisted

A combined total of Php 24.62 Billion was signed more than 2 years ago, with the World Bank rolling in 78% via loan proceeds and 21% counterpart from GOP, with the big bulk going into the parcelization of CCLOAS and the rest for Capacity Building and Technical Assistance and a chunk for Project Management, Monitoring, and Evaluation.

Partner agencies are the Land Registration Authority (LRA) and Registry of Deeds (ROD), the Land Bank of the Philippines, DILG, and NCIP to facilitate the participation of indigenous peoples.

With the enormity of the mission, involving 146,870 CCLOAS that are located in all provinces, Project SPLIT will be employing about 6,000 personnel with a Project Management Structure that would involve the entire DAR Bureaucracy and a lot of help from non-DAR personnel from the private sector composed of legal officers, geodetic engineers, processors, documenters, and support staff.Led by a Project Implementation Officer (PIO) who is the Undersecretary for Foreign Assisted and Special Projects Office (FASPO), Usec Jesry Palmares faces the daunting task of deploying Field Validation Teams (FVT) that will be immersed in the task of taking hold of the CCLOAS from the ROD, coordinating with the LGU in identifying the location of the land, finding and conducting “Pulong-Pulong” with the listed (annotated) ARBs, whether they are still the ones tilling the land, their heirs, or their non-listed beneficiaries, let alone the various physical changes in its environs.

Extended Project SPLIT with now a clear path ahead

With the slow take-off during COVID restrictions, Project SPLIT will be given a 3-year extension to complete the social justice and agrarian reform program of the Philippines.

E-Titles Distribution continues…

Parcelization for more than one million ARBs will finally grant them improved land tenure security and strengthened property rights that will capacitate them to invest in their land and give them access to credit and other land market investments.