PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has directed the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to speed up the distribution of Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) to qualified farmer-beneficiaries.

Marcos issued the order during the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday when DAR presented its accomplishment report for 2022 and targets for 2023.

DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III assured the chief executive they will bring government programs to farmer-beneficiaries, according to a news release of the Presidential Communications Office.

“For 2023, DAR will deliver as expected and we will continue to bring government closer to the people,” Estrella said.

During his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July 2022, Marcos vowed to provide support services, implement land distribution and improve the living conditions of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

Among the targets of DAR this year is the complete subdivision of about 34,500 collective CLOA involving 345,089 hectares and distribution of some 134,000 individual titles.

Estrella said they expect the Senate approval of House Bill No. 6336 or the New Agrarian Emancipation Act.

Under the proposal, the unpaid amortizations, interest payments, surcharges and penalties of existing loans of ARBs secured under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program or other agrarian reform programs or laws shall be condoned and written off.

The balances of unpaid obligations of ARBs to landowners shall be assumed by Land Bank of the Philippines and DAR shall issue a certificate of condonation to be annotated on the beneficiary’s emancipation patent or CLOA.

The bill states that lands distributed to ARBs under the series of agrarian reform programs “shall not be sold, transferred or conveyed except through hereditary succession, or to the government or to Land Bank of the Philippines, or to other qualified beneficiaries through the DAR, for a period of 10 years from the issuance of the certificate of condonation or the CLOA.” Philippine News Agency

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