FORTY-NINE agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) were installed to over 33-hectare land in a series of certificate of land ownership award (Cloa) distribution and installation rites held in Cadiz City on Tuesday, May 4, 2021.

Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer Myrna Omaliao, who spoke at the activity, explained to farmers their tax duties and other responsibilities as ARBs.

Omaliao urged them to strive and cultivate the land to have a bountiful harvest and improve their economic status.

"Never engage in any illegal land transactions," she told farmer-beneficiaries.

The involved landholding was formerly owned by Alberto Consing located at Barangay Luna in the northern Negros Occidental locality.

The land was covered through land acquisition and distribution (LAD) process under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (Carper).

Under Carp, public and private agricultural landholdings are acquired by the government to be distributed to tenants, farmers, farmworkers 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.

DAR-Negros Occidental I said the agency aims to provide lands to landless farmers and farmworkers, guarantee the farmers' land security, deliver social equity, and provide them with the necessary productive resources needed to ensure their economic viability and productivity.

"Such continuous field activities conducted by the DAR are evidence that despite the challenges brought by the pandemic, the service for the Filipino people lives on," it said.

With Negros Occidental still under the modified general community quarantine, the activity complied with the minimum health protocols set by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Department of Health.

The DAR is the lead government agency that holds and implements comprehensive and genuine agrarian reform.

The program actualizes equitable land distribution, ownership, agricultural productivity, and tenurial security for, of, and with the tillers of the land towards the improvement of their quality of life, the agency added.