(JOSE ALSMITH L. SORIA)
VICTORIA, Northern Samar – Four hundred eighty-one agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) from different parts of this province received their individual Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) on Tuesday, November 12 this year.
DAR Assistant Secretary for External Affairs and Communications Operations Office, Rodolfo Castil Jr., led the distribution of the 592 electronically generated titles (e-titles) covering an aggregate area of 865.6872 hectares of farm lands. Castil explained that the e-titles were generated under the World Bank-assisted Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project after subdividing collective CLOAs previously issued to ARBs. SPLIT project subdivides lands covered by collective CLOAs to improve land tenure security and strengthen property rights of ARBs.
In his message, Castil told the recipients of the individual titles, “Patunay po ito na ang ating pangulo, si President Bongbong Marcos, ay committed na mabigyan kayo ng magandang kabuhayan.”
He also advised the beneficiaries to take care of the lands awarded to them under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), “Nang sa ganun meron mamamana ang inyong mga anak, mga apo, mga apo sa apo,” said Castil.
DAR Eastern Visayas Regional Director Robert Anthony Yu assisted Castil in the distribution of e-titles at the Stardome in this town, which is about 58 kilometers away from the provincial capital. He disclosed that the lands covered by the e-titles are situated in the towns of Bobon, Capul, Victoria, San Antonio and Gamay.
Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez, chairman of the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC), joined Castil and Yu in the distribution rite.
Romualdez shared he was appointed RPOC chairman by the President “dahil sabi nya sa akin, mayor, make sure that this happen, na magkaroon ng titulo ang mga taga Region 8, lalo na sa Islang Samar.”
According to him, “Hiningi din ni President nung magmeeting kami with then 8ID head, General Ligayo, siguraduhin nyo na hindi aagawin sa kanila at walang kukuha ng mga lupa nila dahil para sa kanila yan.”
Land distribution is DAR’s contribution to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC), a whole-of-nation approach to address insurgency in the country.
Meanwhile, Viviana Carmen, 50, a former tenant, and one of the e-title recipients, expressed gratitude to the President and to agrarian reform secretary, Conrado Estrella III. Carmen said, they need not give share to the former landowners anymore. They can use the money in buying their daily needs and in sending their children to school.
On the same occasion, Castil turned over to the local government unit of Catarman a check worth P20-million for the concreting of Barangay Cag-abaca-Barangay San Julian farm-to-market road.
(JOSE ALSMITH L. SORIA)
