TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan (PIA) -- Over 3,500 farmers in the Cagayan Valley Region received their land titles through the electronic titling program of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the ‘Handog Titulo’ program of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). 

DAR Regional Director Primo C. Lara said there were already 2,500 agrarian reform beneficiaries who received a total of 3,000 individual electronic titles covering 3,693 hectares of agricultural lands as of last year. 

He said under the regular land acquisition and distribution program, 1,234 e-titles were handed to ARBs in Cagayan province, 620 in Isabela, and 135 in Nueva Vizcaya.

Under the Support to Parcelization for Individual Land Titling project, 327 e-titles were already distributed in Cagayan, 595 in Isabela, 65 in Nueva Vizcaya, and 24 in Quirino province.

On the other hand, 1,001 farmers have received their agricultural land titles under the ‘Handog Titulo’ program of DENR, aside from the processed residential and institutional land titles. 

With the mass processing and distribution of land titles, farmer-beneficiaries expressed their gratitude to the government, especially to the Marcos administration for the eventual release of their land titles. 

Virginia Paraggua, one of the beneficiaries from Dupax Del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya, said it took 12 years for them to wait before they finally received their land titles. 

“We are very grateful to President Marcos and to the different government agency officials who helped us to accomplish all the requirements needed for this land title,” Paraggua said. 

Eugenia Tambiao, also a beneficiary from Baggao, Cagayan, said the government proved that they reach out to the marginalized who have nothing to process their documents to get their land titles. 

“Processing of land title is very expensive but we thank the President because this title was given to us for free. If not for him, maybe we haven’t received our land titles because we don’t have money to process it. So we are very glad of this program of the government,” Tambiao stated. 

Jose Gumpal, another beneficiary from Jones, Isabela, also expressed his gratitude to the Marcos administration and he urged the government instrumentalities to continue to help poor farmers in the processing of documentary requirements needed to acquire their respective land titles. 

“There are still a lot of poor farmers who do not have land titles yet and we hope that the concerned agencies like DAR and the Department of Agriculture will help them so that they will also receive their respective land titles soon,” Gumpal said.

The beneficiaries further expressed their gratitude to President Marcos for condoning unpaid amortizations and interests and exempting payment of estate tax of agricultural lands awarded under the comprehensive agrarian reform program, one of the first orders he signed when he assumed office. (OTB/PIA Region 2)