FORMER farm workers are now the owners of the land where they used to work in Bago City.

This, after they received their certificates of land ownership award (Cloas) from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)-Negros Occidental II.

The recipients are 27 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), who now own the 18.0580-hectare landholding formerly owned by Carmelino Mamar.

Situated at Barangay Bacong, it was covered through the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) specifically under compulsory acquisition.

Senior Agrarian Reform Program Technologist Maria Teresa Araneta, who led the distribution on Friday, July 3, 2020, congratulated the new landowners for they are now freed from the burden of paying the rentals for the use of the land as well as from the fear of getting ejected as tenants.

Araneta, though, warned the ARBs not to sell their government-awarded lands as this a ground for disqualification as Carp beneficiaries.

"The agency's support to farmer-beneficiaries under Carp does not end in the distribution of lands for there are a lot of support services that can help boost their economic lives,” she said.

The farmers, Araneta said, must be responsible by making their lands productive.

They should perform their obligations under the law including the payment of taxes and land amortization to the Land Bank of the Philippines, he added.