ALANGALANG, Leyte- Soon, agriculture graduates and uniformed personnel will have their own lands to till.
This was disclosed by Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones during his visit to this town Thursday (Nov. 26) as he led in the distribution of certificate of land ownerships (Cloas).
Castriciones said that giving lands to agriculture graduates will help increase the number of young people who will take agriculture courses and this could encourage parents for their children to farming-related course.
“Kaya nga marami rin ang nag-aral ng agriculture, pero dahil sa pagkagraduate nila yung kanilang natutunan hindi nila magamit sapagkat wala silang sariling lupa. Kaya po ngayon ang aking gagawin, gagawa po tayo ng administrative order in relation to sections 6, 7, and 14 or RA 6657 so that all agriculture graduates will have their own piece of land, so they can put into practice their wealth of experience and the knowledge they gain from their agricultural studies,” he said.
RA 6657 refers to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) of 1988.
“Some of them even have masteral degrees, some of them even have doctorate in agriculture. But the only problem is they don’t have a piece of land that they can use as a laboratory in order to implement what they have learned as experts in agriculture,” Castriciones said.
According to the DAR Secretary, there is around 200,000 hectares of government-owned idle lands that could be used for this purpose, adding that there is also around 500,000 hectares of lots could be distributed to potential CARP beneficiaries.
Other than agriculture graduates, retiring or retired uniformed personnel from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police who are landless will also be entitled to receive a portion from the government-owned idle lands, according to Castriciones.
Rebel returnees are also included in this program he added.
Under the proposed administrative order that he will issue next week, agri-graduates and retired AFP and PNP personnel will receive 3-hectares of land for them to till and nourish.
“Definitely this will be a bold steps in order to see to it that agriculture will really take the lead when it comes to the development of our country,”he said.
Castriciones, in his visit to this town, lead in the ceremonial distribution of CLOAS to 1,031 Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARB) from the towns of Alangalang, Barugo, Burauen, Capoocan, Carigara, Dagami, Jaro, Kananga, and Pastrana, all in Leyte.
Farm machineries were also distributed to ARBs from Alangalang town.
The event was also graced by Vice-Governor Carlo Loreto, Mayor Lovell Yu, and national government agency heads.
Castriciones also lead the launching of the Support for Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT), a program in partnership and funded by the World Bank worth PhP24 billion.
This project, which will be implemented for three years, seeks to improve land-tenure security and stabilize property rights through fast-tracking of land subdivision of collective CLOA and generate individual titles on lands awarded under CARP.
The program is targeting a total of 63, 373 ARBs for CLOA subdivision, 36, 287 ARBS for CCLOA redocumentation, a total of 114,661 hectares for CCLOA subdivision and 92, 644 hectares for CCLOA redocumentations. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)

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