[ Manila Bulletin Online ] May 15, 2008
Some 17,000 farmers and their families are expected to benefit from one of the biggest nationwide land distribution programs of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Secretary Lito Atienza yesterday said the department will distribute on June 12 at least 17,000 land ownership entitlements that include free patents, certificates of entitlement to lot allocations (CELA), and special patents to qualified land tillers and farm occupants. The activity will take place throughout the country’s 13 regions and the National Capital Region (NCR). “As the country celebrates its day of freedom, we also want thousands of our countrymen to be liberated trom the clutches of poverty by giving them a piece of land which they can proudly call their own,” Atienza said. “This program is in line with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s commitment and directive to give the poor people easier access to landownership.” A total of 16,730 free patents will be distributed on June 12 by 73 Provincial Environment and Natural Resources (PENROs) all over the country, with some 350 CELAS to be distributed by the DENR in the National Capital Region. A special patent for the distribution of the Parola Compound in favor of the National Housing Authority and 252 deeds of sale for the residents of Taguig will also be made. “Equitable distribution of parcels of land and the facilitation of the issuance of free patents, CELAs and other land ownership documents which will provide land tenure to poor families are some of the major concerns of the DENR. Land ownership for the poor is one of the commitments of the present administration,” Atienza said. “Land distribution will be vigorously pursued and will remain a priority project of the DENR. We are now reviewing big land cases and status of huge chunks of land which have been idle for ages with the end view of making them productive.” The DENR chief said he is looking into the possibility of providing security of tenure to thousands of families by distributing some parcels of land at Fort Bonifacio in Taguig, Rizal, and in Calatagan, Batangas. Some 318 farmers in Calatagan recently trooped to the DENR seeking the department’s assistance for the return of ownership to some 507 hectares of farmland which is now within the property of Asturias Industries in Barangays Baha and Talibayon in Calatagan, Batangas. The farmers claimed that the area had been awarded to them when they were given emancipation patents (EP) in 1989-1990 under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) of then President Ferdinand E. Marcos, but five years later, the heirs of the original landowner managed to sell again the said parcel of land (507 hectares) to Asturias Industries, Inc., which the firm is now holding under a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) issued by the DENR on July 29, 1997.
xSecretary Lito Atienza yesterday said the department will distribute on June 12 at least 17,000 land ownership entitlements that include free patents, certificates of entitlement to lot allocations (CELA), and special patents to qualified land tillers and farm occupants.
The activity will take place throughout the country’s 13 regions and the National Capital Region (NCR).
"As the country celebrates its day of freedom, we also want thousands of our countrymen to be liberated trom the clutches of poverty by giving them a piece of land which they can proudly call their own," Atienza said. "This program is in line with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s commitment and directive to give the poor people easier access to landownership."
A total of 16,730 free patents will be distributed on June 12 by 73 Provincial Environment and Natural Resources (PENROs) all over the country, with some 350 CELAS to be distributed by the DENR in the National Capital Region. A special patent for the distribution of the Parola Compound in favor of the National Housing Authority and 252 deeds of sale for the residents of Taguig will also be made.
"Equitable distribution of parcels of land and the facilitation of the issuance of free patents, CELAs and other land ownership documents which will provide land tenure to poor families are some of the major concerns of the DENR. Land ownership for the poor is one of the commitments of the present administration," Atienza said.
"Land distribution will be vigorously pursued and will remain a priority project of the DENR. We are now reviewing big land cases and status of huge chunks of land which have been idle for ages with the end view of making them productive."
The DENR chief said he is looking into the possibility of providing security of tenure to thousands of families by distributing some parcels of land at Fort Bonifacio in Taguig, Rizal, and in Calatagan, Batangas. Some 318 farmers in Calatagan recently trooped to the DENR seeking the department’s assistance for the return of ownership to some 507 hectares of farmland which is now within the property of Asturias Industries in Barangays Baha and Talibayon in Calatagan, Batangas.
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