Balay Kauswagan, Sagay City, Negros Occidental
March 8, 2019

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, assisted by Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary Atty. John Castriciones, led the ceremonial distribution of 3,423 Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) to eight (8) representatives of 2,495 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) at the Social Hall of Balay Kauswagan in Sagay City, Negros Occidental.

In his speech, the Chief Executive cited some of the current administration’s programs to serve the interest of the people, such as the passage of free education or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, the Universal Health Care Act, among others.

“I am a worker and I work for the people. Period na,” President Duterte said.

The CLOAs cover around 2,000 hectares – private agricultural lands obtained through Compulsory Acquisition and under Voluntary Offer to Sell (VOS) – in cities and municipalities in Negros Occidental.

A total of 485 out of the 2,495 ARBs have already been given basic services by the DAR and other national and local government agencies through the Land Tenure Improvement (LTI)-Program Beneficiaries Development (PBD) Integration Strategy. According to the DAR, these services include credit facilitation and availment, capacity development trainings, provision of common service facilities, livelihood support, agri-extension services, PBD lawyering and market linkaging, among others.

The remaining 2,010 ARBs shall be provided with invention plans that include enterprise-based development and economic support.

The distribution of CLOAs in Negros Occidental is part of the DAR’s target to turnover more than 40,000 hectares of land for the year 2019. The DAR exceeded its target last 2018 as it distributed around 60,000 hectares to ARBs.

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