President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. distributed 4,724 Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOA) and Electronic Titles (e-titles) to 2,797 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in Negros Occidental, and P69.17 million in farming assistance.
The president called the ARBs “living heroes of our time for ensuring that there is enough food on the table of every Filipino family” at the distribution rites at the Manuel Y. Torres Memorial Coliseum and Cultural Center in Bago City, Negros Occidental, on Monday, April 8.
“Our gathering here in Bago City is proof that your government, led by the Department of Agrarian Reform, does not stop fulfilling its promise to distribute farmlands to beneficiaries,” Marcos said in his speech.
Of the 4,724 land titles distributed, 2,828 titles will be distributed to 1,551 ARBs in northern Negros Occidental and 1,896 titles to 1,246 ARBs in the southern part of the province.
Marcos said the distribution of the CLOAs and the e-titles is part of the more than 11,000 titles that will be distributed to all ARBs of Negros Occidental this year.
Marcos had ordered the DAR to fasttrack the distribution of the land titles. The DAR targets to distribute 11,772 land titles to 7,848 ARBs in Negros Occidental this year, a press statement from Malacañang said.
Marcos also distributed P69.17 million worth of assistance, which included organic fertilizer, farm machinery and equipment (FMEs), the President’s Bridge for Agrarian Development (TPKP), and Farm-to-Market Roads (FRMs) to 1,830 beneficiaries in Negros Occidental, it said.
“You can count on me and the entire government to support you in all your efforts,” he told the ARBs. “In our promotion of Bagong Pilipinas, our goal is simultaneous development where no one is left behind in advancement,” the President told the ARBs.
Marcos signed the New Agrarian Emancipation Act in July last year, which benefits more than 610,054 Filipino farmers tilling more than 1.7 million hectares of land agrarian reform lands, making them debt-free from P57.65 billion of agrarian arrears.
The President said those who received their land titles before July 24 last year are already debt-free.
“To those who received e-titles from collective CLOAs, and to those who received CLOAs on lands registered before the fourth of July last year, I am pleased to inform you that you will no longer have to pay amortization,” Marcos said.*