TACLOBAN CITY (PIA) — Even though it was still 14 days before Christmas, Pancho Bayben from Maydolong town viewed the Certificate of Condonation with Release of Mortgage (COCROM) he received on December 11 of this year as an early Christmas gift from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
The COCROM discharged Bayben’s remaining debt of ₱26,495.89 to the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) that he incurred from the amortization of the land awarded to him under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
Nalilipay ako kan (President) Bongbong Marcos nga ginhatag ini nga maaga nga pamasko ha am nga waray na namon babayaran han am nabibilin nga utang ha Land Bank,” Bayben said.
(I am happy about this early Christmas gift that President Bongbong Marcos gave us: we will no longer pay our remaining debt with the Land Bank.)
Atty. Robert Anthony Yu, DAR-8 Regional Director; Marian June Libanan Ganzon, representing Marcelino Libanan, House Minority Leader and 4Ps Partylist Representative; and Alfonso Catorce, Eastern Samar Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II, distributed 90 COCROMS to 72 ARBs from this city and the towns of Can-avid, Dolores, Hernani, Lawaan, Maydolong, and Salcedo.
Catorce reported that a total of ₱438,929.26 in unpaid debts, as indicated by the 90 COCROMS, were remitted under the New Agrarian Emancipation Act (Republic Act No. 11953), which President Marcos signed on July 7, 2023.
On the same occasion, 280 individually generated electronically created land titles (e-titles) were distributed to 203 Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) as part of the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project.
These e-titles represented a total area of 381 hectares of farm lots located in the municipalities of Balangiga, Balangkayan, Can-avid, Dolores, Giporlos, Lawaan, Quinapondan, San Julian, and Taft.
Yu stated that granting individual titles to Agricultural Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) enhances their property rights over awarded lands.
He noted that providing land to landless individuals facilitates their ability to generate livelihoods. This contributes to the Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) efforts to support the End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC) initiative, which aims to address insurgency issues in the country.
DAR likewise turned over various farm machineries and equipment with a combined amount of ₱900,000 to the Lalawigan Progressive Farmers’ Association, President Roxas ARB Association Inc., and the Sagkaray Farmers Agrarian Reform Cooperative. (AAC, PIA Leyte with reports from DAR-8 Regional Information Officer Jose Alsmith L. Soria)
