DAR-EV holds marathon distribution of land titles, COCROMs

By JOSE ALSMITH L. SORIA
July 2, 2026

BORONGAN CITY – “What a nice birthday gift!” exclaimed Benita Garol who turned 90 years old a day before the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) handed her the Certificate of Condonation with Release of Mortgage (COCROM) which erased her more than P9,000.00 unpaid amortization, including interests, at the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), for the more than a hectare farm land awarded to her under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

As DAR commemorated the 38th year of CARP implementation in June, it conducted a marathon distribution of individual land titles and COCROMs in Eastern Visayas, holding its third and last lap in this city on Monday, June 29 this year.

Garol, a resident of Dolores town, was among the 53 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in Eastern Samar who received COCROM from DAR Eastern Visayas Regional Director, Atty. Robert Anthony Yu, who led the distribution rite at the Provincial Capitol Gymnasium.

Yu handed 71 COCROMs here covering 128 hectares of farm lands situated in this city and in the towns of Can-avid, Taft and Dolores wherein P805,012.00 of unpaid amortizations, including interests were written-off. On July 7, 2023, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed Republic Act No. 11953 or the New Agrarian Emancipation Act, freeing ARBs from financial burden.

Though she is already old to till her awarded lot, Garol left farming activities to her grandchildren.

Meanwhile, 132 ARBs from this city and from the towns of Balangkayan, Dolores, Giporlos, Lawaan, Llorente, Maydolong, Quinapondan, Salcedo, Sulat and Taft received on the same occasion their individual electronic land titles (e-titles) generated under the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) Project to improve tenurial security and strengthen ownership over their awarded lots.

Alda Lapada, daughter of Miguel Fidelino, happily received the said document in-behalf of her deceased father. According to her, they waited for 10 years to get hold of his father’s individual title.

The marathon distribution, which started on June 22 this year at the Samar State University in Catbalogan City for ARBs from the provinces of Samar and Northern Samar, followed on June 23 at the DAR Regional Office in Tacloban City for ARBs from the provinces of Leyte, Southern Leyte and Biliran, and ended here for ARBs from Eastern Samar, a total of 10,857 COCROMs covering an aggregate area of 190,543.49 hectares of farm lands across the region were released to 8,144 ARBs, with P395.6 million of unpaid amortizations condoned.

For the individual title, a total of 370 individual e-titles covering a combined area of 513.4017 hectares of land were handed to 306 ARBs, who rejoiced upon receiving their individual titles, which they waited for years.

In all three occasions, Yu, emphasized to the ARBs that agrarian reform is not about land distribution alone, but empowering also the beneficiaries with the various support assistance extended to them. He encouraged them to organize themselves into cooperatives so they would be able to avail as well of the different government assistance.

Yu shared Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III’s order, “No ARB must be left behind. Lahat sabay-sabay na uunlad.”

In relation to this, Yu turned over in Eastern Samar a tractor with disc plow and rotary tiller to the Malico Agrarian Reform Farmers Association, Inc. in San Policarpo town to aid them in their farm operations with modern farm machineries and equipment.