VIRAC, Catanduanes (PIA) — A total of 216 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) from this island province have been freed from debts and obligations totaling P3.188 million related to agricultural lands awarded under the agrarian reform program.
Through the issuance of Certificates of Condonation with Release of Mortgage (CoCROM), these farmers are no longer required to pay for the land granted to them, according to Nerisa Aldea, provincial agrarian reform program officer.
Aldea said this action fulfilled President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s promise to improve the lives of Filipino farmers by breaking the cycle of land bondage.
She said her team worked closely with the Land Tenure Improvement Division of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and facilitated the processing and release of all condonation certificates for the identified ARBs in the first quarter of 2025.
“Isang napakagandang balita para sa ating mga kababayan magsasaka, lalo na at hinagupit ang Catanduanes ng magkasunod na malalakas at mapaminsalang bagyo,” Aldea said.
One of the recipients, Rodrigo Vallespin, a 68-year-old farmer from San Andres, Catanduanes, expressed his gratitude to President Marcos Jr. after his debt for a 2.5-hectare of land was condoned.
“I am very happy and grateful to our dear President Ferdinand Mmarcos Jr. and Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella. For a long time, we were not able to pay our debts to the LandBank due to lack of extra income. Now, I will not worry about my debts anymore,” he said in the vernacular.
“Wow, we no longer have debts in the bank. We can now focus on planting abaca,” Marites Panti from Barangay Paraiso, San Miguel, 40, said.
The debt condonation initiative is a component of RA 11953, or the New Agrarian Emancipation Act.
This legislation was signed into law by President Marcos in July 2023.
The law mandates the cancellation of unpaid principal amortizations, interest, and surcharges on agricultural lands that were awarded under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. (PIA Bicol/Catanduanes)
(Cover photo credit: DAR Catanduanes)
