Ilocos region: The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) on Monday distributed 775 electronic titles (e-titles) to 677 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in the Ilocos Region, covering more than 717 hectares of land.

According to Philippines News Agency, the distribution was part of the extended implementation of the World Bank-funded Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project, which aims to subdivide around 1.38 million hectares of Collective Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CCLOA) nationwide.

During the ceremonial awarding rites held at the municipal auditorium, DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella urged ARBs to take proper care of the land awarded to them and make it productive for their future. He expressed concern over the ageing population of farmers, with an average age of 60, and encouraged the younger generation, regardless of their profession, to help improve the land they inherited as agriculture remains the backbone of the Philippine economy.

Estrella emphasized the importance of focusing on food security, linking it to national security, and encouraged teaching children to plant and care for animals. He assured the farmer-beneficiaries that DAR will do its best to uplift the lives of farmers under the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.

He highlighted that the government has provided farm machinery and equipment, farm-to-market roads, irrigation projects, and other forms of support to farmers in the Ilocos Region to boost their productivity.

"I am so happy and grateful to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. for this program," Jojie Rumbaoa, a resident of Barangay Namuroc, expressed in Ilocano after receiving his land title. He hopes the government will continue to assist them in making their land more productive. Rumbaoa shared that it took him and his nine siblings three years to finally receive their individual land titles.