Amid the increasing number of Covid-19 cases, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) continues to distribute certificates of land ownership awards (CLOAs) to select agrarian reform beneficiaries in Bataan and Laguna.
DAR Secretary John R. Castriciones has led the house-to-house distribution of CLOAs, or land titles, issued to beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
Over the past few days, Castriciones personally handed over to CARP beneficiaries their individual CLOAs.
Living in a remote area in Barangay Mabayo in Morong, Bataan, Neptali Martin and Diosdado Gonzales got an unexpected visit from the DAR chief on July 3.
The CLOAs each cover 3 hectares. Besides the farm lots, Martin and Gonzales were also awarded home lots, the firsts to receive such benefit from DAR.
“This is to show the government’s sincerity of bringing to the people its services wherever they are,” said Castriciones in a news statement.
Gonzales, 63, and Martin, 62, were among the 20 beneficiaries who received their CLOAs, covering 31.3 hectares of agricultural land.
The DAR chief urged the farmer-beneficiaries to make their farms productive and avoid the practice of selling, or pawning them, for quick cash.
Meanwhile, Undersecretary Emily Padilla handed an added surprise—a bag of planting materials comprising of vegetable seeds, some pesticides and four seedling trays, plus a sack of fertilizer, all for free under the PaSSOver: ARBold Move to Heal as One for Deliverance of ARBs (agrarian reform beneficiaries) from Covid-19, or ARBold Move.
The same bags of farm inputs, with each costing P2, 166, were distributed to 107 farmer-beneficiaries as part of the government’s effort to enlist them in pursuit of its food sufficiency program.
Padilla also encouraged them to join, or form a farmers’ organization to enable them to avail of various government support service under the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture where a total of P2.5 billion is appropriated for the full insurance coverage for crops, livestock, fisheries, or non-crop agricultural asset.