Duterte distributes CLOAs in Quezon
MULANAY, Quezon — President Duterte distributed last Wednesday certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) to 386 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), transferring to them the ownership of the remaining 654.4082 hectares of Hacienda Matias in this town.
During the distribution, Duterte was assisted by DAR Secretary John Castriciones and local DAR employees based in Quezon.
The farmer-beneficiaries were also assured of government support and assistance for the continued and greater productivity of farmlands distributed to them.
Early last year, 283 farmers-beneficiaries received their CLOAs for about half of the estate covering three of the seven land titles, but were unable to occupy the land due to harassment by hacienda workers and legal actions of the landowners.
The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) records showed that Hacienda Matias, which is covered by seven land titles, has been placed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program since 2004.
Earlier, a portion of the property covered by three titles, were given out last year.
For several years, the owners of the 1,715-hectare Matias estate, mostly planted to coconut and straddles the villages of Butanguiad and Don Juan Vercelos in San Francisco town in the Bondoc Peninsula district, have been opposing the government’s land reform program specifying that the estate is a “cattle ranch.”
The government, through a Malacañang decision dated June 9, 2014 signed by then Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., rejected the argument.
Under the previous sharing system in the hacienda, a farmer is given only a third of the proceeds of farm products like copra.
The hacienda caretaker takes charge of selling the copra and automatically deducts the two-thirds share of the landowner from the proceeds.
The farmers shoulder all the production expenses but are not refunded after the sale.
Last Wednesday, the President was welcomed by House Minority Floor Leader and Quezon 3rd District Rep. Danilo E. Suarez, Quezon Governor David C. Suarez and Mayor Joselito A. Ojeda at the town plaza.
It is noteworthy that since Duterte assumed office, the DAR in Quezon has had two CLOA distributions already: First on Oct. 25, 2017 in San Narciso town, where 1,270 hectares of land were distributed to 434 farmer beneficiaries; and the second on Apr. 18, 2018, also in San Narciso, where a total of 780 hectares were distributed to 510 farmer beneficiaries.