DAR returns land to farmer in Northern Samar

TACLOBAN CITY––The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Eastern Visayas restored on May 26 the rights of a 65-year-old widower from Pambujan town in Northern Samar to till a 2.7-hectare of rice land awarded to her in 2003, but was forced to give up.

Lilia Galupo of Barangay San Ramon was awarded in 2003 the 2.7 hectares of rice land under the government’s agrarian reform program. In 2014, she was forced to abandon the lot after the former owner, Eufemio de la Cruz, claimed that the certificate of land ownership award (CLOA) given to her by DAR was fake.

De la Cruz sold the lot to Ben Revilles for P100,000, said Joel Soria, the regional information officer of DAR.

On May 26, Galupo took possession of the land again.

“This is the first time such an incident happened,” Soria said.

DAR learned about the problem of Galupo after her son, Alberto, went to their office early this year to determine if the CLOA received by her mother was bogus or not.

DAR attested to the authenticity of the CLOA.

Last May 26, DAR summoned the parties involved wherein De la Cruz admitted that he deceived Galupo and agreed to pay Revilles P100,000 within two years.

During the confrontation, Revilles agreed to return the awarded lot to Galupo but asked that they equally share the harvests until he is paid in full by De la Cruz.

Soria said Galupo expressed her gratitude to DAR for helping return the lot to her.

The DAR official asked farmers who could be in a similar situation to visit their office, so they would not be deceived.

This year, DAR in Eastern Visayas targets to distribute 1,527 hectares to 1,381 farmers.

Last year, DAR distributed 1,075 hectares, which benefited 953 farmers in the region.

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