130 Cadiz City ARBs now landowners

THE Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Negros Occidental-North has awarded over 13 hectares of land to 130 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in an onsite installation, layout and monumenting activities held in Cadiz City recently.

Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer Rodrigo Jose Villaluna, who led the ceremony, expressed hopes that the awarded land will motivate farmer-beneficiaries to alleviate their lives and their families.

The covered landholding was formerly owned by A.L. Agro Development Corporation situated at Barangay Cadiz Viejo in the northern Negros Occidental locality.

The activity was conducted through land acquisition and distribution process under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms.

Under the program, 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 certificates of land ownership awards covering one contiguous tract or several parcels of land accumulated up to a maximum of three hectares per ARB.

This is anchored to the agency’s aim 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 inconveniences brought by the pandemic, the service for the Filipino people lives on," the agency said.

With Negros Occidental still under the Modified General Community Quarantine, the activity has complied with the minimum health protocols, it added.