50,000 land reform beneficiaries in Cagayan Valley finally get titles

OWNERS AT LAST President Marcos, holding a portrait gifted to him, joins thousands of agrarian reform beneficiaries with their land certificates in a program in Cabagan, Isabela, on Friday. —CABAGAN MUNICIPAL POLICE PHOTO

CABAGAN, ISABELA — Over 50,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries in the Cagayan Valley provinces of Isabela, Cagayan, Nueva Vizcaya, and Quirino received land titles in ceremonies led by President Marcos in this town on Friday.

Recipients of the titles included 21,964 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) who mostly received lands during the Cory Aquino Administration in the late 1980s, but were mostly saddled by unpaid land acquisition loans now condoned; about 28,264 ARBs benefiting from the new agrarian emancipation act; and 918 ARBs gettting emancipation patent or certificate of land ownership award (EP-CLOA).

President Marcos handed out 26,285 Certificates of Condonation with Release of Mortage (CoCRoM) and 1,170 EP-CLOA and Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) electronic titles in the ceremony held at the Doña Josefa T. Albano Gymnasium here.

The Department of Agrarian Reform-Cagayan Valley was the lead agency in the distribution of CoCRoM, covering 22,275 hectares of agricultural land and benefiting 21,964 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in the provinces of Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino.

READ: 150 farmers in 5 Nueva Ecija towns get land titles

The government will assume the debt of these ARBs from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) amounting to P1,164,983,438.

The NAEA condones the amortization of principal payments, interest, and penalties incurred by the ARBs from the land awarded to them under Presidential Decree No. 27 in 1972; and Republic Act (RA) 6657 (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988) and RA 9700 (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms).

Mr. Marcos also awarded another 33,088 CoCroM certificates benefiting 28,264 ARBs, and concerning 28,577.8927 ha of agricultural lands under the new agrarian emancipation act, or RA 11953, otherwise known as the “New Agrarian Emancipation Act (NAEA)” signed into law by President Marcos in July 2023.

Mr. Marcos, who was accompanied by Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella, likewise distributed 1,170 EP/CLOA and SPLIT E-titles to 918 ARBs from the provinces of Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino.

Heavy burden

Cagayan province will have a separate activity for distribution of CoCRoM on Dec. 9 in Solana, Cagayan.

to be distributed are 6,803 certificates covering 6,303.0939 ha pf agricultural lands benefiting 6,300 ARBs in the province.

Beneficiary Ruthgarda Remudaro, 84, of Solana, said that despite receiving land from DAR in 1986, she has struggled for decades to pay off the land acquisition loan with the LBP.

The same predicament had hounded Rolando Manuel, a farmer from Cagayan’s Allacapan town, who said that he has had difficulties in settling his land payments since the 1990s.

Both are among thousands of CoCRoM recipients in Cagayan who have long considered these payments a heavy burden alongside their farming challenges.

As thousands of ARBs across the region received their CLOAs and CoCRoMs, President Marcos reminded them that while these titles are blessings, they also carry great responsibility.

He said that the land now entrusted to them is not only a gift, but a duty — a duty to care for, nurture, and develop.

“The future of your family, community, and our country is in your hands,” he told them at the event Thursday.