Manila, Sept. 10 -- The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) continues to advance land tenure security for qualified beneficiaries by distributing 1,003 land patents in Ilocos Region, giving recipients stronger legal recognition of their ownership and use of the land they have long relied on.

During a ceremonial awarding held at SM City Laoag on Thursday afternoon, 56-year-old Myla Catherine Irorita-Osdon, a new residential land patent holder in Barangay Bonifacio Poblacion, Cabugao, Ilocos Sur, told the Philippine News Agency that she can finally call herself a landowner.

"Thank you to the DENR for being so accommodating in the processing of our titles," she said in an interview.

Osdon, along with her mother and youn...