![CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY - Installing recipients of Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOA) under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) remains a challenge, regional officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform said. Zoraida Macadindang, DAR regional director for Northern Mindanao, said they need the military, police, and local governments to assist them in facilitating the entry of CLOA holders to the lands granted to farmers under the CARP.](https://mindanaotoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/National-1-31.jpg)
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY - Installing recipients of Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOA) under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) remains a challenge, regional officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform said. Zoraida Macadindang, DAR regional director for Northern Mindanao, said they need the military, police, and local governments to assist them in facilitating the entry of CLOA holders to the lands granted to farmers under the CARP.
MindanaoToday.com | DAR-X needs help to install CLOA holders
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Installing recipients of Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOA) under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) remains a challenge, regional officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform said.
Zoraida Macadindang, DAR regional director for Northern Mindanao, said they need the military, police, and local governments to assist them in facilitating the entry of CLOA holders to the lands granted to farmers under the CARP.
As of Tuesday, June 25, during the Kapihan sa Bagong Pilipinas forum in Cagayan de Oro, DAR-X has yet to install some 491 CLOA holders to the lands indicated in the tenurial documents. They were among the 167 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in over three decades.
DAR-X has acquired and distributed a cumulative total of 320,890 hectares or roughly 97 percent of the targetted 329,975 hectares (has.) of agricultural lands for the CARP in Northern Mindanao since 1988.
As presented during the forum, DAR-X has 239,031 ARBs in 176 agrarian reform communities (ARC) and are members of 525 agrarian reform beneficiaries organizations (ARBO), as of May 2024. It has distributed 12,609 “collective” CLOAs covering some 100,717 has. of agricultural lands.
Macandindang said almost 77 percent of the 12,609 “collective” CLOAs or 9,623 CLOAs involving 77,243 has. and consisting of 63,398 ARBs have been validated, under their Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) Program.
In the past 11 months, DAR-X acquired 796 has. of land and distributed these to 1,795 beneficiaries, more than half or 384 has. of these were in Bukidnon province. Only 4,738 has. of the targetted 329,975 has. have yet to be acquired and distributed.
Macadindang said the remaining 4,738 has. are “mostly problematic” lands: 3,251 has. in Bukidnon; 1,119 has. in Lanao del Norte; 33 has.in Misamis Occidental; and 335 has. in Misamis Oriental. These are idle privately-owned lands.
She said that while the ultimate objective is for the CLOA beneficiaries to till the agricultural lands and make these produtive, they cannot put the lives of their personnel and legitimate land claimants at risk.
Lawyer Noel Carreon, DAR-10 regional agrarian reform adjudicator, resistance of landowners and those who have illegally occupied the lands, already covered by CLOAs, aside from legal disputes often delay and pose challenge to them.
There have been instances where lands subjected to the CARP are secured by armed men to prevent the entry of CLOA beneficiaries.
Carreon said that under their Agrarian Justice Delivery Program, they provide legal services to ARBs and has primary jurisdiction to determine and adjudicate agrarian reform cases. As of May 2024 since 1988, they have adjudicated and resolved 33,233 cases and mediated 16, 845 conflicts through alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. (MT)
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