The Department of Agrarian Reform in the Cordillera Administrative Region (DAR-CAR) has already distributed 104,230 hectares of land out of its 105,000 hectares target, benefiting 58,581 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

“Halos patapos na ang CAR sa acquisition and distribution of land. ‘Yung mga 800 hectares tinatapos pa natin (We are almost done with the acquisition and distribution of land. About 800 hectares remaining will be distributed) this year and the succeeding years” DAR-CAR Director Samuel Solomero said during the “Kapihan sa Bagong Pilipinas” briefing here on Tuesday.

Among the lands distributed were lots 1, 2 and 3 of the Benguet State University (BSU) located in Barangays Wangal and Puguis in La Trinidad, measuring 257 hectares.

Benguet Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer (PARO) Leilani Cortez, said the 82 hectares of BSU land distributed on June 18 benefited 131 ARBs, while the remaining 175 hectares are for 200 more ARBs.

Jane Toribio, chief Agrarian Reform Officer of DAR-CAR, also said that they are targeting to distribute 224 hectares this year — 159 hectares for completed documentation, 46 hectares for survey by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the remainder for valuation by Land Bank of the Philippines.

“It is a work in progress but we hope to finish the processing and be able to distribute the target 224 hectares until the end of this year,” she said.

Currently, there are 86 agrarian reform communities, eight agrarian reform clusters composed of two or more communities, and 383 agrarian reform organizations in the Cordilleras.

Continuous assistance

Aside from land acquisition and distribution, Solomero said the agency ensures that ARBs fully utilize their acquired lands through the other services of the agency.

He said DAR continues to assist ARBs through the split title program which allows a group of people named in one Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) to have their individual titles.

ARBs also obtained additional assistance in terms of livelihood, financial, and legal assistance, as well as linkages to agriculture credit and microfinance institutions.

DAR assists ARBs with enrollment to the Registry System for Basic Agriculture to qualify them for various agri-fisheries assistance.

PBBM’s New Agrarian Emancipation law

Meanwhile, Toribio said that there are about 2,000 ARBs in the Cordilleras who have been validated as beneficiaries of the New Agrarian Emancipation law signed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in July last year.

“We are waiting for the certificate of condonation and release of mortgage from the central office so that we can have them annotated in the CLOAs of the ARBs,” she said.

The condonation erases the remaining balance in the principal amortization of CLOA beneficiaries, including interests, penalties and surcharges. (PNA)