More than 500,000 hectares of farmlands has been distributed to beneficiaries ever since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office in 2022, Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III said on Thursday.
During the deliberations on the the proposed 2027 budget of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Estrella told members of the House of Representatives committee on appropriations that his agency had distributed 410,179 titles covering 556,088 hectares to 376,738 agrarian reform beneficiaries identified.
‘The years 2022 to 2026 may aptly be described as banner years for the Department of Agrarian Reform,’ Estrella told lawmakers.
From the January to August 2026 period, DAR distributed 16,032 titles covering 23,574 hectares to 14,032 beneficiaries. In 2025, the agency had apportioned 199,838 titles over 23,574 hectares to 176,202 farmers, according to its presentation.
In 2024, 88,310 farmers received 102,546 land titles over 120,772 hectares of land. The agency gave away 69,897 titles for 84,044 hectares to 73,399 beneficiaries in 2023.
In the first year of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s government, DAR released 21,876 titles over 25,159 hectares to 24,804 farmers, based on the presentation.
Land reform is a contentious issue in the Philippines, a traditionally agricultural nation where vestiges of Spanish colonial land ownership have been inherited and sustained across decades.
About 5.4 million hectares of land were earmarked for distribution to farmers under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform law, which aimed to reduce inequality by diffusing farmlands to tillers.