Army helps in CLOA distribution in Escalante

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

 

BACOLOD City – Lieutenant Colonel Gerard Alvaran, commander of Army’s 79th Infantry Battalion (IB), said the government is doing its best to end and prevent the local armed conflict by facilitating the resolution of legitimate issues and concerns, like the distribution of agricultural land to qualified beneficiaries.

The 79th IB assisted the Department of Agriculture (DAR) in the distribution of 15 Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) to 12 Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs), covering about 3.6020 hectares of farmland at Barangay Pinapugasan, Escalante City, Negros Occidental early this week.

Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer (MARPO) Maritess Resano led the distribution of CLOAs in a simple ceremony held at the village’s covered court while observing health protocols against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Alvaran said that the issuance of CLOAs will eliminate the worries of beneficiaries regarding the status of their land.

It will also enable them to increase their agricultural produce, encourage them to invest, and eventually improve the overall quality of their living, he added.

CLOAs are given as proof of ownership to identified ARBs under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

The program, which allocates idle government-owned lands for agricultural use, intends to alleviate the incidence of poverty in the rural areas and provide land security for the farmer-beneficiaries and their families.

The farmer-beneficiaries were happy now that they are finally the owners of the land they have been tilling for a long time.