MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. on Monday said his administration is working to complete the distribution of land to all Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) before the end of his term.

Marcos made the statement during the distribution of Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) in Passi City, as he assured ARBs in Iloilo that the land reform program is high on the priorities of his government.

In his speech, Marcos said that he did not expect that the distribution of land to agrarian reform beneficiaries, which started during his father’s administration, would take so long to complete.

“Ngunit umabot na nga nang ganito katagal kaya naman kami ay minamadali namin at ginagawa namin ang lahat nang land reform program ay matapos sa administrasyon ko, at lahat ng may hawak na CLOA, lahat ng mga nakalista as beneficiary ay mabigyan ng titulo at mabigyan ng suporta ng Agrarian Reform Department at saka ang Department of Agriculture,” the President said.

During the event, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) distributed a total of 2,779 land titles to 2,143 ARBs.

This covers approximately 2,903 hectares of agricultural land. Malacañang said the distributed land titles were derived from the Support to Parcelization for Individual Titling (SPLIT) Project.

“This includes 2,687 titles covering 2,784 hectares, allocated to 2,062 ARBs, as well as 92 titles for new lands covering 118.7 hectares, distributed to 81 ARBs.”

Marcos said that the government is on track to exceed the land distribution target for 2023, a feat that he said was the best Christmas gift to all.

“Para ituloy ang mga nagawa na dito sa Agrarian Reform, I asked the DAR to complete the distribution of lands to their deserving owners while collaborating with all agencies of government to support our beneficiaries in anything that they might need,” he continued.

Monday’s event in Iloilo was the President’s first public engagement since completing his 5-day isolation Sunday after getting infected anew with COVID-19.