KORONADAL CITY, South Cotabato (PIA) -- The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in the Soccsksargen region handed over land titles to 1,371 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB) in the province of Sultan Kudarat under its “Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling,” or SPLIT, project.

The ARBs described the land titles as the “fruits of their labor,” expressing gratitude to the government for finally receiving their land titles after long years of waiting.

The DAR held the ceremonial turnover of the e-titles to ARBs as part of the agency’s support for the conduct of the Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair recently in Sultan Kudarat.

Pababa Bansil, a farmer from Barangay Kapaya in Bagumbayan town, said the distribution of land titles is a great blessing for land tenants like him, who have plowed the land for at least 33 years. 

“Sobra-sobra gid ang pagpasalamat ko. Dako gid siya nga blessing,” Bansil said, adding that the government also paid his taxes, amounting to P47,000.

[I am very thankful to the government for this huge blessing.]

According to Bansil, he now plans to further improve his over two hectares of rice and corn farms since these are their family’s main source of income.

For Ernesto Forro, 66 years old and a resident of Barangay Kinayao, still in Bagumbayan, to finally own an individual land title is such a great blessing.

Forro has been a land tenant for at least 30 years, and farming is their family’s source of livelihood. 

“Kaluy-an gid nga may titulo na kami [In God's mercy, we already have a title],” he told the Philippine Information Agency, saying he has been tilling two and a half hectares of land planted with corn, banana, and coconut.

“Ang ani sang lupa ang nagbulig gid sa amon pamilya para mapaeskwela kag mapakaon ang amon mga bata,” Forro added.

[The land yield is what really helps our family send our children to school and feed them.]

Bansil and Forro were just two of the 1,371 agrarian reform beneficiaries in Sultan Kudarat who recently received the e-titles from DAR.

Meanwhile, Abdullah Balindong, provincial agrarian reform program officer of DAR-Sultan Kudarat, said the total parcelization of titles covers 3,177.4610 hectares under the SPLIT project.

“The SPLIT project of the Department of Agrarian Reform aims to fast-track subdivisions of the Collective Certificates of Land Ownership Award,” Balindong explained.

He further emphasized that the project also focuses on improving the security of tenure and strengthening the property rights of ARBs.

The national government under the Marcos administration pushes for the distribution of land titles as part of its unwavering commitment to improve the lives of farmers, freeing them from long-time debt and poverty. (SJDM - PIA Region 12)