299 farmers get lots from DAR

Some 299 farmer-beneficiaries from barangays Poblacion, Bongan and Tabunok in Tabuelan town have received their Certificates of Land Ownership from the Department of Agrarian Reform-Cebu provincial office.

The lands that were distributed, that covered an area of 110.8994 hectares, were given to farmers free under the National Livelihood Support Fund of the office of the president, however, they are required to pay real property taxes.

The certificates were personally distributed by DAR assistant regional director for operations Eliasem Castillo, Tabuelan municipal planning officer Carlo Fernando Logarta and other municipal officials.

Castillo told the recipients that the certificates are proof of their ownership of the land they till and advised them to make their land more productive not only for themselves but also for the others as well.

Castillo also told the farmers to pay their respective real property taxes and advised them not to sell their lands for it will defeat the purpose of DAR in giving land to the landless.

Because of that, DAR vowed to conduct an inventory on all land titles it has distributed to check if the farmlands are being used according to their intended purpose.

To date, the DAR provincial office has already distributed more than 1,000 hectares of NLSF lands in Tabuelan.

Meanwhile, a new set of guidelines for landowners and beneficiaries is being implemented by the Department of Land Reform to ensure the immediate distribution of farmlands.

Isaganie Yee, DLR-7 operations divisions chief, said they implemented the changes to correct the tedious process involved in the old guidelines.

He added that the change is part of the continuing Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program that started in 1988.

Yee said landowners are now required to submit a notarized letter offer, after noting that some landowners who voluntarily offer their lands for CARP beneficiaries do not hold sufficient documents to prove their rightful ownership of the land.

A common hindrance to the processing of documents for certificates is the disputes with landowners who refuse to give up their land, sometimes the landowners are misrepresented by other individuals, who volunteer the sale of the lands without the owner's knowledge.

Yee said they believe these changes will hasten the process of distributing certificates to farmer-beneficiaries.

Aside from the notarized letter, DLR will also require landowners to submit a photograph of the specific land area that they would like to sell. - Jasmin R. Uy