BANGUED, Abra (PIA) — A total of 54 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in the province of Abra received their land titles covering a combined area of 73 hectares from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
DAR Cordillera Regional Director Samuel S. Solomero and DAR Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer Mercedes Borongan led the awarding of electronic titles of Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) under the Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project.
Beneficiaries are from the municipalities of San Juan, Pilar, Tayum, Bucay, La Paz, and Manabo.
“Agyamanak unay ti DAR naited met laengen daytoy titulo ti daga nga nabayag ko ururayenen. Dakkel a tulong kaniami kangrunaan kadakami nga bassit lang ti talon na,” Elvira Ormenita, ARB from San Juan said in expressing her gratitude and sentiments of her fellow beneficiaries.
[I am very thankful to DAR, I finally have this land title that I have been waiting for so long. This is a great help especially to us who are only tilling small parcels of land.]
Solomero advised the beneficiaries to value and protect the lands that were given to them by the government for free.
“You are very lucky, kayong mga ARBs na nakatanggap ngayon dito dahil wala kayong babayaran since government-owned lots ang mga ito. It is free of charge. Sana naman, itong mga individual titles na naibigay sa inyo, wag niyo namang ibenta or isanla. Protektahan niyo, ‘yon lang naman ang hiling namin,” Solomero said.
He explained that the New Agrarian Emancipation Act signed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr in July 2023 condoned all the unpaid amortizations of the ARBs including interest and other surcharges under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
Project SPLIT is DAR’s program which parcelizes lands under collective certificates of land ownership awards to have specific areas titled to individual beneficiaries. (JDP/CAGT-PIA CAR, Abra)
