DAR finds 2,007 undistributed land titles in Cebu, set to file charges vs involved officials
THE DEPARTMENT of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said it has discovered 2,007 land certificates dating as far back as 1987 that were stored in sacks and left undistributed by its regional office in Cebu.
Agrarian Reform Secretary John R. Castriciones said in a virtual briefing on Monday that the certificates of land ownership covering 1,636.7 hectares were not given out to the supposed beneficiaries.
“We were able to discover 2,007 CLOAs which were placed in two sacks and were set aside and not distributed to our farmers,” Mr. Castriciones said.
The documents were stored inside the Land Transfer and Implementation Division office in DAR’s Cebu provincial office.
“When we tried to peruse the dates of these CLOAs (Certificate of Land Ownership Awards), many of these dated back as early as 1987, 1990, and 1991 onwards. They have not been distributed for the past years. This is quite unfair to our farmers,” he said.
DAR will file administrative and criminal charges against 13 officials who are suspected to be liable in the failure to distribute the land titles.
“The DAR provincial office in Cebu has no right to withhold the distribution of titles the moment that it is released to the DAR by the Registry of Deeds, which means that it is all set and ready for distribution to beneficiaries anytime,” Mr. Castriciones said.
“The fact that they are unable to distribute the CLOAs makes them liable,” he added.
According to DAR, the CLOAs found are authentic as determined by the security features and its corresponding serial numbers.
Mr. Castriciones declined to disclose the names of the DAR officials who will be slapped with charges.
Meanwhile, the agrarian reform head said he has ordered all regional directors to submit an inventory of undistributed CLOAs in their respective areas for transparency.
“Based on initial reports from regional directors, there are undistributed CLOAs at around 254,000 hectares. This includes collective CLOAs and those to be distributed for 2021,” Mr. Castriciones said. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
