By Alexander Lopez
BUENAVISTA, Agusan del Norte – A total of 5,801 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) across the Caraga Region received individual land titles covering about 10,777.9566 hectares under the Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) Project.
The land titles were distributed during a stakeholders’ engagement activity conducted by DAR-13 in Buenavista, Agusan del Norte, on Thursday.
DAR Undersecretaries Kazel Celeste and Josef Angelo Martires, together with DAR-13 Regional Director Merlita Capinpuyan, led the one-day activity, which gathered more than 3,000 ARBs from across the region.
Another 307 ARBs received land titles under the Regular Land Acquisition and Distribution Program, covering about 420.4129 hectares in Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur and Surigao del Sur.
Aside from land titles, six Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Organizations (ARBOs) with 542 members received farm machinery, equipment, and livelihood interventions worth more than PHP2.4 million through DAR’s Climate-Resilient Farm Productivity Support Project.
“The DAR continues to strengthen its commitment to improving the lives of ARBs through land distribution, farm mechanization, and agricultural enterprise development across the Caraga Region,” Capinpuyan said in a statement.
She said DAR, as the agency mandated to implement comprehensive and genuine agrarian reform, continues to promote equitable land distribution, agricultural productivity, security of land ownership and a better quality of life for farmers and their families through various programs and interventions.
Airese Boligol, chairperson of the Anticala Farmers ARB Cooperative in Butuan City, thanked the government, through DAR, for the livelihood assistance received by the organization.
“We received a package for an egg production project from the DAR composed of 192 heads of ready-to-lay chickens,” Boligol said.
She said the package also included poultry housing and 40 bags of feed, which are expected to last four to five months.
“This is a big help to the 34 ARBs and 30 non-ARB members of our cooperative. We have already established markets in Butuan City where we will deliver the eggs we produce from our egg production project,” Boligol said.
Agustina Rosal, an ARB from Barangay Santo Niño in Jabonga, Agusan del Norte, expressed joy after receiving her land title under the SPLIT Project.
“For years, my family worked on land which is owned by 11 other ARBs under one collective title. Now, we can freely develop our farmlands after it was subdivided through SPLIT project,” Rosal said.
She said her family plans to plant more fruit trees, coconuts and vegetables on the 528-square-meter parcel of land they now own. (PNA)
