THE Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Negros Occidental-South has distributed certificates of land ownership award (Cloas) and installed 20 farmer-beneficiaries in La Castellana town last week.

The new landowners will divide the 23.5763-hectare land formerly owned by Generoso Jalandoni located at Barangay Masulog of the southern Negros Occidental locality.

Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer Mila Alejado, who led the distribution and installation rites, said the landholding was covered under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reform (Carper) through compulsory acquisition.

"The program includes one of the DAR's core functions which is to provide land tenure security to landless farmers and farm workers through Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) involving the redistribution of government and private agricultural land," she explained.

Alejado further emphasized that along with the privilege of owning the land from the government are the duties of the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

These include the payment of their land taxes and amortizations to the Land Bank of the Philippines and to refrain from engaging in prohibited acts particularly the selling and leasing of Carp-awarded lands.

Senior Agrarian Reform Program Technologist Efren Tan encouraged the ARBs to form their own farmer's cooperative in order to avail bundles of support services from the DAR and other government agencies.

Barangay Agrarian Reform Council Representative Vicente Dela Piedra, for his part, lauded the will of the agency to change the life's status of the farmer-beneficiaries through the provision of the parcels of land and other forms of support services.

"We have to be grateful with this kind of government's program. Hence, we have to exert our efforts to till the valuable land given to us because through this, we can escape from the bondage of poverty," Dela Piedra added.

Precautionary measures in order to avoid the spread of the coronavirus disease such as the social distancing and wearing of face masks were strictly observed during the distribution and installation rites. (With reports from Dindo Gelasque)