In a bid to hasten the subdivision of lands and distribution of individual land titles to qualified agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has empowered field validation teams with motorcycles.
The first batch of 156 motorcycles have been delivered to the DAR central office in Quezon City 2; Cordillera Administrative Region, 25; Ilocos Region, 27; Cagayan Valley, 52; Central Luzon, 20; and Central Visayas, 30.
“These motorbikes will make a big difference in our efforts to expedite the subdivision of collective Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) into individual land titles because there are areas, especially in the countryside, where motorbikes are the only appropriate modes of transportation,” DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III said in a statement on Friday.
Field workers make actual validation of relevant information necessary for the re-issuance of land titles.
Joey Sumatra, DAR Assistant Secretary for Field Operations, said in a news release that each unit costs PHP150,000.
The 156 motorcycles are part of the 820 that DAR had procured at an aggregate cost of PHP123 million under the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project.
“Pick-up vehicles, laptops, and desktops are to be deployed in the field offices in the next three months,” Sumatra said.
SPLIT pursues the full implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program by enabling farmer beneficiaries to have a clear and defined ownership of the parcels of land they are tilling; encourage farmers to increase their production and make long-term improvements of their land; stabilize the ownership, tenureship and control of the lands awarded to ARBs; and generate short-term income opportunities for the project workers who will be hired in the implementation of the project.
Other regions that will receive their motorbikes are Calabarzon,17; Mimaropa, 22; Bicol Region, 60; Western Visayas, 108; Eastern Visayas, 123; Zamboanga Peninsula, 65; Northern Mindanao; 60; Davao Region, 59; Soccsksargen, 88; and Caraga, 62.
During the Cabinet meeting in Malacañang on Monday, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. directed the DAR to expedite the distribution of CLOAs. (PNA)
