A total of 58,387 certificates of land ownership awards (CLOAs) were distributed by President Duterte to 60,233 farmers under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said.
The CLOAs covered a total of 102,727 hectares from five regions, namely, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Caraga, Davao region and Soccsksargen.
Besieged by armed conflict between state forces and secessionist groups, the war-torn Mindanao, of late, became targets of terrorist activities, prompting the Duterte administration to place the entire Mindanao under a state of martial law in May last year.
Proclamation 216, the proclamation of martial law and suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the whole of Mindanao, was issued by Duterte on May 23, 2017, the same day he ordered an all-out offensive against ISIS-inspired armed groups that took hundreds of civilians hostage in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur.
During the distribution, Duterte ordered the DAR to ensure that all the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB) of CARP-covered lands should have in their possession the titles and full exercise of ownership and control of their government-awarded lands.
Agrarian Reform Secretary John R. Castriciones said this is the first CLOA turnover to the Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) pursuant to Administrative Order 5, Series of 2019.
“The DAR and the LandBank agreed that we have to boost the confidence of the farmers in the [CARP],” Castriciones said in a statement.
The CLOAs distributed Friday covered lands in the Zamboanga Peninsula with 9,597.616 hectares; Northern Mindanao, 7,590 hectares; Caraga region, 18,865 hectares; Davao region, 29,492 hectares; and Soccsksargen, 37,182 hectares.
A ceremonial distribution of 1,361 Certificates of Land Ownership Award to 1,709 agrarian reform beneficiaries of Davao region, involving a total of 1,452 hectares of lands acquired and distributed to them, was also held in Davao City.
These CLOAs cover some 182 hectares of private agricultural lands acquired in later months of 2018 and early months of 2019, and 1,179 hectares of partitioned CLOAs, which were the resultant titles of collective CLOAs issued to agrarian reform cooperatives.
Irrigated farms
Land distributed to farmer-beneficiaries of CARP includes irrigated areas. In a report published recently, the Philippine Statistics Authority disclosed that the area of total irrigated lands in the country expanded at an average rate of 3 percent in the past five years, reaching 1.920 million hectares in 2018.
In its annual report, titled “Agricultural Indicators System: Agricultural Structure and Resources,” the PSA said total the total irrigated area in 2014 was estimated at 1.708 million hectares.
“The proportion of total irrigated land to estimated total irrigable area went up to 61.39 percent in 2018, from 60.35 percent in 2017. This indicated that the irrigation development was 1.04 percentage points higher than the previous year’s record,” the PSA said in the report, which was published on Wednesday.
Citing National Irrigation Administration (NIA) data, the country’s total irrigable area as of end-2018 is estimated at 3.128 million hectares, PSA said.
In 2014, only 56.57 percent of the total irrigable area had irrigation services, PSA data showed.
Last year, NIA Administrator Ricardo R. Visaya said it would take the government four decades to supply water to all irrigable lands in the Philippines.
Jonathan L. Mayuga & Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas