THE Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has started the distribution of 2,034 land certificates in Cebu, including the 2,007 that were recently discovered in two sacks gathering dust at the agency’s local office. DAR, in a statement on Thursday, said around 1,709 of the titles equivalent to 1,320 hectares of land can be immediately released, while 325 have been excluded as the beneficiaries could not be located. About 200 have so far been distributed. “We are doubling our efforts to finish this task and as much as we can, we would distribute them on a daily basis because the agrarian reform beneficiaries land titles should have been distributed a long time ago,” DAR Central Visayas Regional Director Resty C. Osias said. Some of the certificates of land ownership date as far back as 1987. DAR is preparing to file administrative and criminal charges against 13 officials in DAR-Cebu liable for the failure to distribute the titles. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave