Duterte awards 1,361 land ownership certificates in Davao
Credit to Author: acerojano| Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2019 14:10:04 +0000
DAVAO CITY-President Rodrigo Duterte handed over some 1,361 Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) to 1,709 farmers in the Davao Region during a Mindanao-wide gathering of agrarian reform beneficiaries at the Davao City Recreation Center Friday night, August 2.
The President arrived at the venue, also known as the Almendras Gym, past 8 p.m.
The Davao Region CLOAs involved a total of 1,452 hectares which the government acquired and distributed to farmers, according to the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
These were part of the 58,387 CLOAs that were released by the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) to DAR for distribution to 60,233 beneficiaries in five Mindanao regions.
The President witnessed the turnover of CLOAs from LBP to DAR, all of which cover ownership to 102,727 hectares of land.
“This is the first turnover of the CLOAs, which were deposited to Land Bank before, from LBP to DAR (and) to our farmer-beneficiaries,” DAR Sec. John Castriciones said in the sidelines of the event.
The turnover is pursuant to Administrative Order No. 5 Series of 2019.
“DAR and the Land Bank agreed that we have to boost the confidence of the farmers to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP),” Castriciones said.
He added that for the entire country, there are 200,000 Emancipation Patents and CLOAs covering about 350,000 hectares that are set to be turned over by Land Bank.
Hence, the DAR will have other turnover ceremonies in Visayas and Luzon, according to Castriciones.
Sabrina Parasan-Tambis, a farmer who traveled from General Santos City, said she was excited to receive title to a three-hectare land that her father used to own and till.
“We till the land our Father once owned. We assumed it since 1992 after he failed to pay for his loan to the Land Bank of the Philippines. We are happy so we really attended the ceremony,” Tambis said as she awaits the President’s arrival.
Alex Ligo, a farmer in Kapalong, Davao del Norte, said this is a moment he had been waiting.
“The owner of our land, who is an American, told us to apply to become the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) beneficiary. We were awarded the land in 2018 and now we can finally receive the CLOA this year,” said Alex Ligo from.
The beneficiaries shall subsequently have the full and unrestricted exercise of ownership and control of their awarded lands, the DAR said in a press briefer.
The awards of titles to the recipient farmer-beneficiaries are the “penultimate step towards the completion of the CARP,” the DAR added.
It further said that the award of titles is the last step towards the implementation of CARP and leads to the next step which is to render support service to the beneficiaries.
The said support will include capability development trainings and provision of common service facilities, “with a vision to optimize the potential to market their produce to the public,” the briefer said.