BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
Some 90 agrarian reform beneficiaries received their certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) from the Department of Agrarian Reform in Murcia town, Negros Occidental, recently.
Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer Edelita Abanilla led the activity and told the farmers that every right comes with a responsibility.
Abanilla said the agency helped farmer-beneficiaries acquire the land they can call their own.
She said that, hopefully, they will never forget the responsibility that comes with it, including the taxes to be paid and other obligations to be acted upon.
The distributed property, formerly owned by the Josefina Rodriguez Agricultural Corp., is located in Barangay Abo-Abo in Murcia town.
The 108.8330-hectare land was distributed by the DAR through the land acquisition and distribution process under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (Carper).
Under the program, public and private agricultural landholdings are acquired by the government to be distributed to tenants, farmers, farm workers, and other tillers who are qualified to become ARBs.
This is in the form of CLOAs covering one contiguous tract or several parcels of land accumulated up to a maximum of three hectares per ARB.
It is anchored on the agency’s aim to provide lands to landless farmers and farm workers, guarantee the farmers’ land security, deliver social equity, and provide them with the necessary productive resources needed to ensure their economic viability and productivity.
The DAR-Negros Occidental I said such continuous field activities conducted by the agency are evidence that despite challenges brought by the pandemic, the service to the Filipino people continues. With the province under the Modified General Community Quarantine status, the activity also complied with minimum health protocols set by authorities, it added.*
