Provincial Gymnasium, Kidapawan City, Cotabato
December 29, 2018

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte reaffirmed his commitment to implement an effective land reform program as he led the distribution of the Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) to the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) of Cotabato province in a ceremony at the Provincial Gymnasium in Kidapawan City, Cotabato.

In his speech, the President conveyed that the government is accelerating the distribution of lands in order for the farmers to cultivate and use the idle lands for agriculture.

“We have already been working on an effective land reform program… at ang sakit ko kasi ayaw ko nang ibandera. I do not want praises, I do not want adulation,” he said.

In his objective of providing a comfortable life for all, President Duterte also mentioned that the CLOA distribution would help relieve the burden and support the needs of the landless farmers. He also discouraged violence and armed conflict in addressing land acquisition, saying that the people should not resort to communist ideologies in order for them to acquire lands to till.

In an earlier statement, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said that around 6,000 beneficiaries were awarded in Cotabato Province, and that the distribution was also the largest ever held in the history of agrarian reform programs in the country.

The program, which allocates idle government-owned lands for agricultural use, intends to alleviate the incidence of poverty in the rural areas and provide land security for the farmer-beneficiaries and their families.

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