ARMM to award free land titles to 106 Maguindanao beneficiaries – The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper

COTABATO CITY – Land titles worth about P12 million will be awarded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DENR-ARMM) to farmers-beneficiaries in the towns of Shariff Aguak, Pagatin, Mamasapano and Salibo (SPMS) in Maguindanao province.

These areas called ‘SPMS box’ which is under close watch of the military and now being developed into productive areas. DENR-ARMM Secretary Kahal Kedtag said his office is gearing up to distribute 1,587 hectares currently classified as alienable and disposable public lands.

He said the massive distribution of land titles dubbed “Handog Titulo” aims at combating poverty and stimulating progress and development in the province. It is a program for social upliftment in support of a vibrant economy and a more responsive government.

The DENR-ARMM will distribute a total of 106 land titles covering 213 hectares of public lands. “The free land survey and land titling are DENR-ARMM’s counterpart on ARMM government’s Humanitarian and Development Action Plan (HDAP),” Kedtag said.

The ARMM-HDAP is a project of the regional government under the Hataman administration that will implement various government initiatives specifically relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction of both ‘horizontal’, in reference to school buildings, houses, and health centers, and ‘vertical’ infrastructures, or roads and bridges, and provision of livelihood programs that will promote peace and improve the situation in calamity-affected communities specifically in 15 Maguindanao towns.

“The beneficiaries are now proud landowners and enjoy the security of tenure,” Kedtag added. He noted that an individual who undergoes this process would have to spend millions of pesos.

This year, the ARMM allocated another P42 million worth of land for 15 municipalities in Maguindanao outside the SPMS box and one in Lanao del Sur.

“This is the mandate of our regional governor (Mujiv Hataman) to bring the government services closer to the people, so with the free land titling, we can help uplift the lives of the Bangsamoro people,” Kedtag said. (ARMM Bureau of Public Information)