AT LEAST 71 hectares were re-documented and given to 72 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in an individual certificate of land ownership award (Cloa) distribution led by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Cadiz City recently.
Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer Antonida Yulo, who led the activity, urged farmer-beneficiaries to take good care of the land provided by the government.
“Make the land productive, engage in a progressive farming and business ventures, and keep in mind to pay your taxes and other obligations as new landowners of the land,” she added.
The activity involves landholding formerly owned by Mayo Lopez Carillo located at Barangay Cabahug in the northern Negros Occidental city.
The guidelines for the re-documentation processes conducted by the DAR are provided under Administrative Order Number 3 Series of 1993 or the Rules and Procedures Governing the Issuance of Collective Cloas (CCLOAs) and Subsequent Issuance of Individual Titles to Co-owners, and A.O. 2 Series of 2019 or Guidelines and Procedures on the Parcelization of Landholdings with CCLOAs.
The option to select a CCLOA may be exercised by the ARBs under Section 25 of Republic Act (RA) 6657, which specifies the types of CCLOAs such as on co-ownership basis, farmers’ cooperatives and some other forms of farmers’ collective organization.
Within 10 years from the issuance of CCLOA, the DAR shall retain the option to generate the individual Cloas in the name of the ARBs based on their request and the approved subdivision plan of the landholding and supported by the Deed of Participation executed by all co-owners named in the CCLOA.
DAR-Negros Occidental I, in a statement, said that in the past decades, many landholdings were awarded to the ARBs under a CCLOA through the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp).
Pursuant to Section 25 of R.A. No. 6657, as amended by Section 10 of R.A. No. 9700, the DAR is mandated to immediately undertake the parcelization of CCLOAs over lands that are not collectively farmed or operated in an integrated manner.
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, in the form of Cloas covering one contiguous tract or several parcels of land cumulated up to a maximum of three hectares per ARB.
However, qualified beneficiaries may opt for collective ownership, through a farmers' cooperative, association or some other form of collective organization, for the issuance of CCLOA, it added.