Part of the New Emancipation Act
TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) distributed 2, 641 electronic certificates of land ownership award (e-CLOAs) to a total of 2,118 agrarian reform beneficiaries from across the region.
The title covers a total of 3, 961.5 hectares that is part of the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project of the department.
About 207,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) are to benefit from the newly-signed law, DAR-8 said.
“Eastern Visayas is leading among regions of the country with the most number of distributed individualized CLOA with 6, 483 land titles covering 10, 060 hectares,” DAR Regional Director Robert Anthony Yu said during the e-CLOA distribution last Friday (July 7).
Yu added that the government will also provide additional support services like farm machinery, trainings, and loan to help farmers improve and develop their farms and produce.
The distribution of e-CLOA was held after the official signing of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the New Agrarian Emancipation Act or Republic Act (RA) 11953 at the Kalayaan Hall in Malacañang.
The new law condones all loans, including interests, penalties, and surcharges incurred by agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) from land awarded to them under Presidential Decree (PD) 27 or the Tenant Emancipation Decree of the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. issued on Oct. 21, 1972, RA 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988, and RA 9700 or the An Act strengthening the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez, cousin of the President, said that he is happy that the law was enacted that would benefit the farmers.
“Kaya ako’y natutuwa na tinanggal na itong utang lalo na yung interes na binibigay sa inyo ay mawawala na,” he said during his message during the event.
Liberato Nueva, 66, of Barangay Lapaz, San Jorge, Samar, and a recipient of a two-hectare farm lot awarded to him under the (CARP), said that he welcomed this move of the Marcos administration.
“Thank you to the President. Now I would not be bothered by any loans,” he said.
Present also during the awarding of e-CLOA were Southern Leyte Representative Christopherson Yap (2nd district), Tingog party-list Rep.Jude Acidre, and Samar Vice Governor Arnold Tan.
These officials urged all CLOA beneficiaries not to sell the farmlands ty they received from the government but instead cultivate them to generate income to help them improve their living conditions and for the future of their children. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
