An irate Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary John Castriciones has ordered the fast-tracking of distribution of land titles to beneficiaries in Region-7 after he discovered that some of the undistributed titles date back to the 1980s.
IN compliance with an order by the national government to intensify the distribution of land titles, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Cebu has started its daily distribution of the 2,034 undistributed land titles, covering 1,636 hectares, to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).
DAR-7 said out of the 2,034 land titles, 1,709 land titles covering 1,320 hectares can be immediately distributed, excluding the 325 land titles for ARBs who are unknown or cannot be located in their respective areas.
To recall, DAR Secretary John Castriciones on May 3 went ballistic after he uncovered 2,007 land certificates, consisting of 1,620 certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) and 387 Emancipation Patents (EPs), dating as far back as 1987 that were stored and left undistributed by the provincial office in Cebu.
Castriciones immediately created the Task Force Undistributed CLOAs and directed his officials to conduct a ground validation on the landholdings and ARBs to know the real and actual status of the land and the ARBs in Cebu.
Castriciones said the department would correct the grave mistakes of the officials who were responsible for this injustice because the ARBs were deprived of their opportunities to own a piece of land as mandated by the law.
“If proven that their failure is due to culpable neglect or a willful omission, these officials would face imprisonment and the payment of fine for their crimes they committed,” Castriciones said.
Central Visayas Regional Director Resty Osias said his office is working aggressively to validate the undistributed land titles in the province of Cebu to distribute them immediately.
“We are doubling our efforts to finish this task and as much as we can we would distribute them on a daily basis because the ARBs’ land titles should have been distributed a long time ago,” Osias said.
DAR said currently, less than 200 land titles were already distributed, including the latest distribution conducted in Barangay San Fernando, Carcar, and Sibonga last May 12.
Aside from intensifying the distribution of land titles, DAR Region 7 also formed a legal team to help recipients understand the right of succession in case of death of the actual beneficiary. (SC)
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