PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the Department of Agrarian Reform to provide beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program with individual certificates of land ownership, instead of collective CLOAs, an agency official said Friday.
Undersecretary for Field Operations Karlo Bello said apart from expediting the processing and release of land titles, the President directed DAR officials to release individual land titles and boost the provision of support services to help farmer-beneficiaries develop their awarded lands.
“President Duterte wants individual titling of lands for our beneficiaries, not the collective CLOAs,” he said.
The Office of the President designated Bello to take over DAR while acting Secretary Rosalinda Bistoyong is on an official trip abroad.
Over the week, Bello led the second round of distribution of CLOAs to 1,652 agrarian reform beneficiaries covering a total land area of 937 hectares in Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga and Mt. Province in the Cordillera Autonomous Region.
On Nov. 9, Bistoyong facilitated the first day of distribution of titles in Baguio City.
“I am very happy to be part of this event in your lives. You finally own the lands you’ve been waiting for through the years of toiling and taking care of it. Nobody deserves it better than you and you should make it more productive now,” Bello said.
“DAR is doing its best to deliver the best service to the farmers. We are now gathering farmers’ concerns and issues,” he added.
Among the concerns being considered by DAR includes the requirements from the Land Bank of the Philippines, the Register of Deeds and other concerned government offices.
“We are looking at the causes of the delays in the processing and studying effective schemes to smoothen the operations and coordination of various government offices,” Bello said.