MANILA, Philippines — A total of 194,111 land titles have been so far distributed for the first two and a half years of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. amid growing homelessness and sharinking farm lands in the country, the Department of Agrarian Report data showed Tuesday.

In a report, DAR said that among the distributed assets include 194,111 land titles, including Electronic Titles (e-Titles), Emancipation Patents (EPs), and Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs), covering 229,546 hectares of farmlands to 186,290 Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) 

The department’s year-end data said that this total is dramatic improvement in land title distribution compared to the previous administration. 

DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III said that the distribution is a 1,100 percent increase in distributed titles. 

This is a sharp contrast to the last semester of the previous administration, which saw only 17,640 titles distributed, covering 26,403 hectares of farmlands for 17,549 ARBs.

In the first semester of Marcos Jr.’s term, DAR said it distributed 21,876 land titles, covering 25,159 hectares to 24,804 ARBs—an increase of 24 percent compared to the previous administration.

“These numbers grew further as a total of 69,897 land titles, covering 84,044 hectares of farmlands, were distributed to 73,399 ARBs, equivalent to a 296 percent increase in land distribution,” DAR said.

The momentum continued in 2024, marking a record-breaking year for the agency. 

DAR handed out 102,338 land titles, covering 120,343 hectares of farmlands, to 88,087 ARBs—representing a 480 percent increase in distributions.

“This is a big development in our all-out war against hunger and poverty since the number of ARBs we were able to activate and motivate to till their farm lots has increased by leaps and bounds,” Estrella said.

“With more hands tilling our farmlands, we will be able to produce more and spur rural development at a much quicker pace,” he said.

The data also revealed that DAR distributed 132,393 e-Titles covering 170,718 hectares to 124,651 ARBs under the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) Project. 

An additional 61,718 newly generated EPs and CLOAs, covering 58,828 hectares, were handed to 61,639 ARBs under the Regular Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) program, it said.

Landless farmers, shrinking lands

As the Philippine government ramps up efforts to distribute titles to Filipinos, a number of Filipino farmers have remained tenants of other farm lands while several farm lands are being sold to developers resulting in a reduction of lands to farm.

As of 2023, the Philippines is home to 2.4 million rice farmers, but only slightly more than half own the land they cultivate, according to the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).  

PhilRice data showed that 4.82 million hectares nationwide are used for rice production. However, 2016 government data reveals that 30 percent of Filipino farmers are tenants working on land owned by others.

At the same time, the Philippines has lost much of its farmland over the past 30 years, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported, stressing the need for a new agricultural and fisheries census to guide future plans.  

Farmland in the country shrank from 9.73 million hectares in 1980 to 7.27 million hectares by 2012, according to PSA Chief Dennis Mapa.  

Rice farms have been hit the hardest, with areas dropping by 48 percent—from 3.65 million hectares in 1980 to 1.9 million hectares in 2012. The loss of 1.7 million hectares is linked to land conversion and farmland sales to developers, it said.