Almost 300 farmer-beneficiaries receive land ownership title from DAR-ARMM

COTABATO CITY - Almost 300 farmer-beneficiaries in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) received their Certificate of Land Ownership (CLO).

ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman and Amihilda Sangcopan, secretary of the region’s Department of Agrarian Reform (DARARMM), personally awarded the CLO to 70 Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) from Basilan and 221 ARBs from Maguindanao. The awarding was held during the opening ceremony of this year’s ARMM anniversary in Cotabato City.

The distributed CLO covers a total of 711 hectares of landholdings in the region wherein 154.5 hectares are in Basilan while 556.5 are in Maguindanao.

Secretary Sangcopan said there are still 967 pending CLOs in the regional DAR office that covers more than 2,000 hectares of landholdings in the provinces of Sulu, Basilan, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao. Four hundred eighty one of these are already for transmittal to the office of the regional governor.

She said the landholdings awarded on Thursday are part of the agency’s distribution target this year. “We are working to distribute 20,000 hectares of landholdings this 2015. We are assured of approved survey plans before the end of the year,” she added.

Datu Jan Utto, 35, CLO beneficiary from Datu Saudi in Maguindanao expressed his gratitude to the Autonomous Regional Government noting the land awarded to him will help enhance his family’s livelihood and boost crop production.

“Nagsasaka na ako simula bata at matagal na namin itong hinihintay. Maraming salamat sa ARMM government (I am a farmer since childhood and we have waited this for so long. We are thankful to the ARMM government),” said Datu Jan.

The CLO is a proof that a farmer-beneficiary has the right of land ownership. Land covered by DAR’s CLO cannot be sold, transferred or donated within 10 years upon awarding, except through hereditary succession, or if sold back to the state or to another qualified beneficiary within the 10-year period.