For many farmers in the country, land is not just a place they work at. The lands they tilled are spaces that serve as witness to years–and oftentimes multiple decades–of hard work that has benefited not just their immediate families, but millions of Filipino households who were able to serve food on the table.

But for many Filipino farmers, often referred to as a cornerstone of a country, the land they worked on for years is not even a land they can call their own.

For more than 42 years, Semion Academia of Barangay Tamisu in Bais City in Negros Oriental tilled a land that he did not have a title of.

Now at 102 years old, a centenarian Academia has one dream for his family: Have a land they can call their own–a goal he was finally able to fulfill this year.

Academia was among the thousands of farmers in the Philippines who have benefitted from the government’s Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling program or SPLIT, which aims to provide farmers with individual titles of agricultural land, giving them a sense of ownership.

According to Academia, he would give the land to his children and grandchildren so they could have a better life.

“Thank you, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., for giving us the land that we can call our own after having cultivated this for a very long time,” Academia said in Cebuano.

Vicente Alao-alao Jr., who hails from Mabinay town in Dumaguete City, had two previous amputations on his right leg at the time he was working as a farmer.

He tilled a land spanning one-hectare since 1975 and almost 50 years later, he can now call the land his own.

“This has been the source of our family income since the land was given to us during the time of President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. through a VOS (voluntary offer to sell). We are thankful that under the current Marcos administration, we no longer have to pay for the land,” Alao-Alao said in Cebuano.

Project SPLIT is a flagship initiative led by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), with funding from the World Bank.

The program started in 2021 and was initially supposed to end in 2024. However, the Marcos administration has decided to extend the program and finish it by 2027 or by the end of the President’s term.

The program is expected to benefit over 1.14 million agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB) by providing them with individual titles to approximately 1.38 million hectares of agricultural land through the subdivision of collective Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CCLOAs).

The CCLOA landholdings were supposed to be subdivided among around a million ARBs when the titles were issued in the 1990s. However, they remained unsubdivided for more than 20 years which led to a number of issues such as boundary conflicts and impediments in land amortization payments for those awarded with compensable lands, among others.

To resolve these issues which brought instability to the property rights of the ARBs, the government implemented Project SPLIT by giving farmers their own land title through the transformation of CCLOAs into individual CLOAs, thus providing them clarity and ownership security.

Project SPLIT intends to cover around 139,000 CCLOAs involving land located in 77 provinces and 1,252 municipalities across the country.

“Para sa nakakararami sa inyo, ito ang katuparan ng inyong matagal nang pangarap – Ang pangarap na nakapangalan at nakarehistro na sa inyo ang titulo ng lupa na idineklara ng ilang dekada pa sa inyo na dapat alagaan at para sa inyong pagsaka. Ang pangarap na paunlarin ang kalupaan upang mas magkaroon ng sagana at magandang ani,” President Marcos told farmers in a land title distribution ceremony in May.

According to a document posted on the website of the World Bank in December this year, the DAR has so far registered 113,474 individual e-Titles to farmers with the Land Registration Authority.

DAR has likewise issued 109,047 e-Titles to farmers which is 15 percent of the target of 750,000 ARBs.

Of this number, more than 80 percent of the titles issued have female names on them, either as the primary beneficiary or as co-owner, surpassing the government’s goal of 45 percent female ownership rate.

During the ninth Implementation Support Mission for Project Split between the government and the World Bank in May this year, it was reported that 96,476 CCLOAs have a validated list of ARBs, which represents 70 percent of the target CCLOAs.

As of July this year, the DAR office in Region 12 or Soccsksargen Region–which covers the provinces of North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and Sarangani–registered the highest number of e-titles under Project SPLIT.

“These accolades are testaments to the hard work and steadfast dedication your respective field offices exemplified toward achieving our project objectives. We thank you for your devotion to our agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs),” DAR-12 Director Mariannie Lauban-Baunto said.

Solution to farmers’ plight

In a bid to fulfill a 30-year promise of giving farmers a sense of ownership, President Bongbong Marcos Jr. has said that his administration will finish the land distribution program within his term which will end in 2028.

“Kaya naman inatasan ko at sinabihan ko ang Department of Agrarian Reform na pag-ibayuhin ang kanilang mga programa tulad ng Project SPLIT o Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling upang maibigay na agad ang lupa sa lahat ng kwalipikadong benepisyaryo,” President Marcos said.

In an interview in August 2024, Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III disclosed that the government will distribute about 800,000 more land titles to farmers before the Marcos administration ends.

“Mga 800,000 CLOAs ang kailangan nating ipamigay hanggang matapos ang termino ng ating Pangulo. Mukhang magagawa natin. It looks like kaya natin kasi nahanap na namin yung paraan para mapabilis,” Secretary Estrella said.

According to Secretary Estrella, concerned government agencies are working together to ensure the swift processing of CLOAs.

During the pre-State of the Nation Address briefing aired in July, Secretary Estrella reported that DAR posed a 700-percent hike on land distribution to farmers under the Marcos administration–including those within and outside Project SPLIT.

According to the data provided by DAR, as of July, more than 113,000 land titles were given to at least 133,000 ARBs in the first two years of the Marcos administration. This is equivalent to 157,766 hectares of land.

This is a significant increase from 17,640 land titles distributed from March 2021 to June 2022.

“Noong umupo ang ating Pangulo, sabi niya bakit kakaunti lang ito, paspasan nga ninyo, sabi niya. E di ginawa namin iyong aming makakaya,” Secretary Estrella shared.

Secretary Estrella also hopes that the land title distribution program would help in the country’s food security goals.

For his part, President Marcos has vowed to continue the land reform legacy left by his father, former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

“Panahon pa ng aking ama noong nagsimula ang reporma sa lupa. Nais niyang mapag-arian ng mga magsasaka ang lupang kanilang pinagtatrabahuhan,” President Marcos said.

“Ngunit sa ilang dekada ng programang ito, nakita ko po na hindi pa rin natin nasasagot ang mga suliranin ng mga magsasaka. Kaya po, atin agad binigyang prayoridad ang pagsasawalang bisa ng inyong utang sa lupa at ang pagpapabilis ng pagbibigay ng mga titulo dito nga ‘yung ating tinatawag na CLOA,” the President added.

For President Marcos, what the country needs is a permanent answer and not a band-aid solution to the problems faced by farmers in the county.

“We are always looking to make sure that our farmers will have and will make a good living,” PresidentMarcos said.

“Ilan lang iyan sa mga maraming programang para sa ating mga magsasaka dito sa inyong probinsya upang mapataas ang kanilang ani at mapalaki ang kanilang kita. Tama lang na suklian ang kanilang pagod at sabayan ang kanilang pagsisikap ng tulong ng pamahalaan,” the President added.