Out of its 105,000 hectare target, the Department of Agrarian Reform in the Cordillera Administrative Region (DAR-CAR) has successfully distributed 104,230 hectares of land, benefiting 58,581 ARBs (beneficiaries of agrarian reform).
At the “Kapihan sa Bagong Pilipinas” briefing on Tuesday, DAR-CAR Director Samuel Solomero stated, “CAR is almost finished with the land acquisition and distribution. We have about 800 hectares left, which we aim to distribute this year and the following years.”
Lot 1, 2, and 3 of Benguet State University (BSU), which are spread across 257 hectares in Barangay Wangal and Puguis, La Trinidad, are among the allocated lands. Leilani Cortez, the provincial agrarian reform officer for Benguet, stated that 131 ARBs benefited from the distribution of 82 hectares of BSU land on June 18. The remaining 175 hectares were set aside for 200 additional ARBs.
This year, DAR-CAR hopes to distribute 224 hectares, according to Jane Toribio, chief agrarian reform officer. Of those, 159 hectares have finished documentation, 46 are being surveyed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the remaining 224 hectares are being valued by the Land Bank of the Philippines.
“It is a work in progress, but we hope to finish the processing and distribute the targeted 224 hectares by the end of this year,” she continued.
There are currently 383 agrarian reform groups in the Cordilleras, eight agrarian reform clusters made up of two or more villages, and 86 agrarian reform communities.
Solomero mentioned that in addition to acquiring and allocating land, the organization makes sure ARBs make the most of their newly acquired lands by providing extra services. In order to grant separate titles to a group of people mentioned in a single Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA), DAR works with ARBs to implement the split title program.
In addition, ARBs receive financial and legal support, livelihood guidance, and links to microfinance and agro credit organizations. ARBs can apply for various agri-fisheries support programs by enrolling in the Registry System for Basic Agriculture with the assistance of the DAR.
About 2,000 ARBs in the Cordilleras have been confirmed as recipients of the New Agrarian Emancipation law, which was approved by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in July of last year, according to Jane Toribio.
“We are waiting for the certificate of condonation and release of mortgage from the central office so that we can annotate them in the CLOAs of the ARBs,” she stated.
The remaining amount, including interest, penalties, and surcharges, in the principle amortization of CLOA beneficiaries is cleared by the condonation.
