FREE LAND TITLES. Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer (PENRO) Celia Esteban (third from right) leads the distribution of land titles to 215 residents at the Cristo Rey resettlement area in Capas, Tarlac on Monday (June 17, 2019). The distribution of ownership aims to improve land administration and management and reduce poverty in rural areas. (Photo courtesy of DENR-PENRO Tarlac)
TARLAC CITY, Tarlac — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) provincial office here on Monday distributed land titles to more than 200 residents in Cristo Rey resettlement area in Capas town.
Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer (PENRO) Celia Esteban said on Tuesday that 70 miscellaneous sales patents covering 7,102 square meters and 215 residential patents covering more than two hectares were distributed to residents and their families in O’Donnell resettlement site in Capas town.
Cristo Rey was formerly a sitio (sub-village) of Arangoreng village and was declared O'donnell resettlement site under Presidential Proclamation No. 813 issued on October 11, 1991 for Pinatubo victims. It was later on created as one of the barangays of Capas, Tarlac with more than 13,000 settlers.
“Providing families ownership over the land they occupied in the form of land titles or patent is government modest contribution in promoting social justice and alleviating poverty in the rural sector,” Esteban said.
She said that land administration and management is one of the priority programs of DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu, which is anchored in the 10-point socio-economic agenda of President Rodrigo Duterte of ensuring security of land tenure to encourage investments and address bottlenecks in land management and titling agencies.
Meanwhile, Capas Mayor Reynaldo Catacutan advised the recipients to update their tax declarations to the municipal assessor and pay their land taxes so that the barangay can generate additional income for future improvements.
DENR-Tarlac has already awarded more than 9,000 titles/patents since 2003 to Cristo Rey residents.
In Central Luzon, the DENR distributed a total of 427 agricultural land titles last year, covering 308 hectares and another 3,035 residential land titles covering 76 hectares, benefiting more than 15,000 farmers and their families in the region.
Since 2011, the DENR land distribution program has benefitted around 305,000 farmers and their families from the issuance of 61,132 land titles covering 19,452 hectares in the region. (PNA)
