900 ARBs in South Cotabato receive land titles
AGRICULTURE • 06:45 AM Thu Jul 25, 2019
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By:
Leidenep M. Yecla/DAR South Cotabato
A member of Indigenous Peoples from Surallah, South Cotabato shows off his CLOA that legalized his ownership of a parcel of land provided by the government. (DAR-SoCot)
SURALLAH, South Cotabato - The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in South Cotabato has distributed Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) titles for 1,400 hectares of agricultural lands to 900 farmer beneficiaries of Surallah.
CLOA is a land title issued by the department to ensure security of tenure of farmers who have been tilling the land for years.
Farmers who received the ownership award are expected to improve and develop their lands through sustainable crop production and livestock raising.
Ma. Theresa Quimsing, Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer of Surallah, left three strong points to challenge the farmer beneficiaries: First is their responsibility and obligation as ARBs, second, they must make their lands productive and lastly, they must pay their taxes.
Eduardo Barrios, municipal treasurer, agreed with this and explained that most of people's taxes are used for infrastructure projects like farm to market roads.
"This is the program of our government and that is to provide and distribute land to landless farmers,” Surallah Vice Mayor Pinky Divinagracia, told the beneficiaires.
“Halungan ninyo ang ginhatag sa inyo na blessing halin sa gobyerno. Indi pag pabay-an. Daghan program para sa mga mag-uuma, ug kailangan ninyo maging mapisan makipag cooperate sa mga ahensya sa gobyerno agud to mabuligan kamo (Take care of blessing from the government. Make it productive. The govenrment has many programs for farmers and working hard on it should be your priority. Come to government offices concered if you have issues),” she added.
"Basta gid gina-pray, gipaningkamutan makab-ot gid (It’s an answered prayer.)" she added.
"Dako gid pasalamat nato sa gobyerno kay ginhatagan kita sang yuta. Sa mga kaupod ko na benepisyaryo, indi ta pag.iprenda aton nga titulo kay para ini sa kabataan ta. Kay ginabuligan kita sa gobyerno, dapat atimanon ta man ang duta ta (We should thank the government for this land, to my fellow beneficiary let us not pawn or sell our lands…The government helped us, let us ensure our lands are productive,)" Moda S. Sagan, ARB-Colongulo, said as he received the CLOA containing an area of 2.8654 hectares.
The responsibility of the agency does not end here. Instead it is just the beginning for more opportunities and assistance from the government.
Coupled with this activity is the information dissemination regarding Agricultural Insurance Program (AIP) where DAR allotted P1 billion to ensure farmers could get insurance in cases of crop or animal loss.
There is no more room for them to get hungry. They already have all the resources, all they need is to cultivate and make it productive.