Department Of Agrarian Reform

136 beneficiaries in Pinamungajan receive CLOAs

  136 beneficiaries in Pinamungajan receive CLOAs by Gay Visitacion

CEBU CITY, July 5 (PIA) -- The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) of Cebu Province distributed the Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) to 136 agrarian reform beneficiaries of Felix Barba Estate landholdings covering 152.7404 hectares in Anopog, Pinamungajan, Cebu on June 21, 2011.

The distributed lands were Philippine National Bank (PNB) foreclosed properties, government-owned lands (GOL) covered under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

The CLOA distribution in simple ceremony was held at the Barangay Anopog Stage Hall.

DAR-7 Cebu Province OIC Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer (PARO) I Paulino R. Tudlasan Jr., was assisted in the CLOA distribution by Pinamungajan Vice Mayor lawyer Maria Honeylette Yapha Lingad, Sangguniang Bayan members Francisco Billiones, Bonifacio Alquiza, Anopog Barangay Captain Wensceslao Gentapa, Chief Agrarian Reform Program Officer for Admin, Dr. Andrea Paciana S. Labra, and Pinamungajan OIC Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer (MARO) Jaynes James Abarrientos.

Tudlasan congratulated the farmers and advised them to make their lands productive. He reminded the beneficiaries to dutifully pay their amortization to Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and the realty tax of the awarded lots.

He encouraged the new landowners to strengthen their people’s organization, and increase agricultural production especially Barangay Anopog was launched as an agrarian reform community (ARC).

The ARC has been a recipient of development interventions of the local government unit and benefited from projects of CARP Implementing Agencies and Foreign–Assisted Projects such as farm-to-market roads, irrigation systems, and provision of post- harvest facilities.

The distribution of the CLOAs was in line with the department’s mandate to distribute agricultural lands to qualified farmer-beneficiaries to uplift the socio-economic status and full development of the rural areas.

Philippine court scraps stock for Aquino hacienda | Updated News

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Supreme Court on Tuesday scrapped a stock distribution plan for workers on a sugar estate owned by the president’s relatives.

The tribunal ordered the Department of Agrarian Reform to conduct a referendum among the 6,296 farm workers for them to choose either land parcels or stock in the operator of the 11,115-acre (4,500-hectare) sugar cane plantation.

The court decision upholds a 2005 government decision that was seen as a political move against the Aquino family for joining calls for the ouster of then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for alleged corruption.

President Benigno Aquino III had divested his shares in Hacienda Luisita Inc. last year, his spokesman spokesman Edwin Lacierda said. He declined to comment on the ruling before reading it.

Aquino has said he wanted the court to decide the issue since he was personally connected to it.

The company welcomed the decision, its spokesman, Tony Ligon, told ABS-CBN television.

“We uphold the rule of law,” he said. “We will look at the decision and if we have to clarify something, we will do so.”

He said the company expects to receive “just compensation” for parcels of land that are to be distributed.

No schedule was set for compliance with Tuesday’s court ruling, but the agrarian reform department must submit a “compliance report” after six months.

The hacienda was exempted from land distribution under the agrarian reform law signed by Aquino’s mother, who was president from 1986 to 1992 following the downfall of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Aquino, who was elected last year, has been criticized by farmers’ groups for not pushing relatives in his mother’s Cojuangco clan to give up the estate and distribute the land to farmers who have worked on the plantation since the 1950s.

In 2005, the government’s agrarian reform council decided the stock distribution scheme should be terminated because it allegedly did not improve the lives of plantation workers.

Then-Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman denied that scrapping the stock option was politically motivated.

Pangandaman said that under the scheme, the living condition of the farmers “deteriorated through the years, which is contrary to the vision of (the agrarian reform law).”

Left-wing Rep. Rafael Mariano, who has called for the distribution of all the hacienda lands, denounced the Supreme Court’s “pro-landlord” decision, saying it was “deceitful and unacceptable.

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