Condonation of debts, an early Christmas gift for E. Samar agrarian beneficiaries

By JOSE ALSMITH L. SORIA
December 17, 2024

BORONGAN CITY, Eastern Samar – It was still 14 days before Christmas but Pancho Bayben from Maydolong town considered the Certificate of Condonation with Release of Mortgage (COCROM) he received on December 11 this year an early Christmas gift from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

The COCROM relieved Bayben from his remaining P26,495.89 debt with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) which he incurred from the amortization of the land awarded to him under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

“Nalilipay ako kan (President) Bongbong Marcos nga ginhatag ini nga maaga nga pamasko ha am nga waray na namon babayaran han am nabibilin nga utang ha Land Bank (I am happy for this early Christmas gift (President) Bongbong Marcos had given to us that we are no longer going to pay our remaining debt with the Land Bank.),” exclaimed Bayben at the Provincial Capitol Gym.

On Wednesday, Atty. Robert Anthony Yu, DAR Eastern Visayas Regional Director, alongside Marian June Libanan Ganzon, who represented Marcelino Libanan, House Minority Leader and 4Ps Partylist Representative, and Alfonso Catorce, Eastern Samar Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II (PARPO II) led the distribution of 90 COCROMS to 72 ARBs from this city and from the towns of Can-avid, Dolores, Hernani, Lawaan, Maydolong and Salcedo.

Catorce disclosed that a total of P438,929.26 unpaid debts based on the 90 COCROMS were remitted by virtue of the New Agrarian Emancipation Act (Republic Act No. 11953) which President Marcos signed on July 7 last year.

On the same occasion, 280 individual electronically generated land titles (e-titles), under the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project were handed to 203 ARBs. These e-titles covered an aggregate area of 381 hectares of farm lots situated in the towns of Balangiga, Balangkayan, Can-avid, Dolores, Giporlos, Lawaan, Quinapondan, San julian and Taft.

Yu explained that by providing ARBs with individual titles, property right over their awarded lands is strengthened.

He added that providing land to the landless where they can derive livelihood is DAR’s contribution to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC), a whole-of-nation approach in addressing insurgency problems in the country.