ORMOC CITY — Ten farmers here now own the small rice fields they have been tilling for more than a decade.
“I am grateful I received a title. Thank you, Lord, I now have my own title,” 63-year-old Ernesto Bolakinia said after receiving the land title for the 0.6489-hectare ricefield that he has been tilling during the distribution of the Certificate of Land Ownership Award event conducted by the Department of Agrarian Reform in Barangay San Jose, where most of the CLOA beneficiaries reside.
Bolakinia said the land title will be of big help in sending his children to school.
“All the harvests will now be ours,” Ramil Catado, 42, said after receiving his CLOA for a 1.0255 hectares of land at the event. “Thank you very much, we now own a land where we can plant for our livelihood.”
Another beneficiary, Elenita Godin, received the title for 1.8 hectare of land.
Godin said she is very grateful and it was her first time to own a piece of land.
Rebato said the 10 individual CLOA covered an aggregate area of 6.8660 hectares previously owned by the Concepcion Espina Agricultural Corporation and Anito Ygot. The landholdings are situated in adjacent Barangay Guintigui-an.
Rebato reminded the new land owners of their obligations as agrarian reform beneficiaries, including the payment of land amortizations and the real property taxes.