BANGUED, Abra (PIA) - - The Department of Agrarian Reform Provincial Office- Abra (DARPO-Abra) is on the process of subdividing clustered lands into individual land ownership for its Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs),
DARPO-Abra Head Atty. Penelope de Ausen said the undertaking, “Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling or SPLIT, aims to fast-track the subdivision of lands previously covered by a collective Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs). The project also aims to ensure security of tenure and boost land productivity.
De Ausen explained that Clustered CLOAs are co-ownership but are now being parceled per individual for land titling, with taxes soon to be shouldered by the beneficiaries.
She informed that DARPO Abra has initially entered a few landholdings with the Register of Deeds for the issuance of land titles.
Abra has the highest target in the Cordillera region covering 11,000 hectares with about 16,000 ARBs.But they need to do some cleansing in cases of death of recipients or sold landholdings. De Ausen stressed that one of the conditions of the CLOAs is that the awarded landholdings should not be sold within the 10-year period of acquisition except to the government, through hereditary succession or through another qualified individual ARB.
She bared that among the challenges their office is encountering are erroneous surveys which need to be amended or corrected.
The SPLIT project, with counterpart from the national government, is a four-year project which started in 2020 and expected to end by 2024. However, it only started in Abra second semester last year following the inclusion of the Cordillera region in the project.
De Ausen hopes that the project will be extended considering the limited time and the challenges being encountered. (JDP/SCA-PIA CAR, Abra)
