• CHERYL G. CRUZ
There is need to help farmers in Negros and other agri areas modernize and manage their farms, especially with the New Agrarian Emancipation Act already in effect.
Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas senatorial bet Camille Villar said Feb. 20 in Dumaguete City that the law, signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in 2023, targets to condone the debt of more than 600,000 farmers nationwide.
“So, nakukuha na nila yong titulo sa lupang sakahan nila, at nako-condone na rin or nawa-wipeout ang debt nila…para sa farmers na talaga yan pwede na nila ipamana sa pamilya nila,” Villar said.
She said that last year, Marcos even led the distribution of titles to some 5,000 farmer-beneficiaries in Negros.
With the farmlots owned by farmers and them being free from debt, the next step is to help them efficiently manage their farms, Villar said.
“We have to help our farmers modernize and manage their farms well” for better harvest, she added.
The Department of Agrarian Reform earlier said it plans to distribute 396,430 electronic titles (e-titles), covering 400,000 hectares, to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) nationwide, including in Negros.
A total of 211,751 land titles had been distributed to ARBs in 2024, including 134,736 e-titles, and 77,015 CLOAs under the regular land acquisition and distribution (LAD) component of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
About 203,839 ARBs benefitted from the land title distribution, with 126,810 receiving titles under the SPLIT Project, and 77,029 under the regular LAD program, DAR records show. | CGC
