COTABATO CITY – One hundred farmer-beneficiaries from the province of Maguindanao received their certificates of land ownership (CLOs) on Wednesday during the Department of Agrarian Reform-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’s (DAR-ARMM) first Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARB) conference.
DAR-ARMM Secretary Amihilda Sangcopan with the region’s Chief of Staff Atty. Rasol Mitmug Jr. and Executive Secretary Atty. Laisa Alamia personally awarded the CLOs to the beneficiaries.
Ulambai Sendad, a farmer-beneficiary from Datu Anggal town, said she and her colleagues have been waiting for so long and that she was very happy that she finally received the CLO of the land she and her family have been tilling for decades.
Ulambai, a 42-year old mother of four, received 7,373 square meters of landholding as stated in her CLO.
The land parcels she and other beneficiaries received were part of the 112,290 hectares in ARMM still subject for distribution under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms.
Sec. Sangcopan said CLOs will also be distributed to farmer-beneficiaries in the provinces of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, and Lanao del Sur. The distribution for the other provinces, she said, will be held on the upcoming agrarian reform beneficiaries conferences slated this year.
Executive Secretary Alamia said the regional government is working on institutionalizing the conferences to address the issues of the farmers in the region.
“Ang ARB conference ay magbibigay daan upang masolusyonan ang mga problema ng ating mga farmer-beneficiaries (The ARB conference would pave the way in solving the problems of the farmer-beneficiaries),” she said.
The Maguindanao conference was held at the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex in Cotabato City bearing the theme, “Dalisay na repormang pansakahan tungo sa kaunlaran ng kanayunan (Agrarian reform leading to the development of rural communities).” (Bureau of Public Information)
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