38 farmers in RCSP-target village in Cotabato Prov receive land titles

From the Philippine Information Agency (Nov 4, 2020): 38 farmers in RCSP-target village in Cotabato Prov receive land titles (By Danilo E. Doguiles) 

ANTIPAS, Cotabato Province, Nov. 4 (PIA) -- Thirty-eight farmers in Barangay Camutan, Antipas, this province are now full owners of the land they have been tilling after receiving certificates of land ownership award (CLOA) from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Thursday, October 29.

The distribution of CLOAs to recipients was part of the Serbisyo Caravan in Camutan as a target area for Retooled Community Support Program (RCSP), convergence of local governments and national line agencies under a whole-of-nation approach to end local communist armed conflict as mandated by President Duterte's Executive Order No. 70.

Some 54 hectares of landholdings were handed over to their new owners.

"The primary objective of agrarian reform program is social justice, specifically, equitable distribution of land ownership," Engr. Mario Albete, municipal agrarian reform program officer, said.

"It is significant in the peace-building initiatives of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict because agrarian reform empowers farmers to become productive owners of landholdings."

Agrarian reform is important, Engr. Albete emphasized, because this has been a major issue that the communist terrorist group has anchored its recruitment strategies on.

Awardees were former tenants of the land they till. The landholdings were acquired mostly through voluntary offer to sell and direct payment schemes, he added.

Albete told the new land owners that government support does not end with the turnover of land titles because there are more assistance for agrarian reform beneficiaries that they may access from DAR and other partners.

"We encourage the new recipients of land titles to organize themselves into an agrarian reform beneficiary organization (ARBO) to further empower themselves because support are only coursed through the ARBOs. This farmer associations serve as conduits of support services and being members of ARBOs increased their chances to develop their landholdings into productive farms," he said.

Support, he added, may include trainings, access to credit and other economic support, infrastructure projects, product development, design and packaging, business and marketing and many others. ARBOs may also access support from other agencies such as Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Agriculture and other institutions.

Since 1972, DAR has already distributed more than 3,000 hectares of landholdings in the municipality of Antipas, Albete said. (DED-PIA XII) 

https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1058001