To effectively inform and fast-track the subdivision of land titles through its Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) program, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) conducted orientation seminars for their provincial and regional information officers throughout the country.

In a press release on Tuesday, DAR Undersecretary for Special Concerns and External Affairs and Communication Operations (SC-EACO) Marilyn Barua-Yap said the activity is the agency’s response to the call of Secretary Conrado Estrella III.

“This activity responds to the call made by Secretary Conrad M. Estrella III, to effectively convey to our stakeholders and to the public the DAR’s various projects, programs, and services for the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in line with his thrust to bring government to the people,” she said.

The SPLIT project aims to fast-track subdivisions of Collective Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CCLOAs).

Through the program, DAR eventually issues individual land titles to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) who were previously awarded lands and collective CLOAs under the agrarian reform program.

In March this year, Estrella vowed to hasten the distribution of individual electronic land titles (e-titles) to the ARBs.

To achieve this, he tapped all DAR undersecretaries and assistant secretaries to work closely with regional directors to ensure that processing the individual e-land titles under the Project SPLIT is on schedule.

As of March, DAR has already parcelized 18,802 e-titles, covering 23,898 hectares of agricultural lands, and distributed them to 16,888 ARBs.

Aside from Project SPLIT, the information officers were also trained on the basics of content writing, social media design, social media strategy, and basic smartphone photography, as part of the continuing capacity-building program to increase their effectiveness and efficiency as DARs key communicators. (PNA)