Land reform beneficiaries, those who were given Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA), may have the titles of their lands, but they can not sell or lease their lands until after ten years, when these lots given to them shall have been fully paid for by them, according to an executive of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) here in Bohol.
Provincial Agrarian Reform Field Officer-In-Charge, Dr. Ronald Pumatong issued the statement to warn potential buyers of lots given to CLOA beneficiaries, which may result in court litigation.
In a media forum on Sept. 9, 2021, the local DAR official warned the agrarian reform beneficiaries of their responsibility not to engage in the sale of the lot or have the lot leased to someone else.
The DAR official instead urged the CLOA beneficiaries to make idle lands productive and help contribute to the country’s food security efforts.
Pumatong said that farmer beneficiaries of the country’s land reform program are issued CLOA or Emancipation Patent (EP) as a proof of ownership claims of an agricultural land from DAR.
Moreover, CLOA beneficiaries, under the law, are prohibited to sell, transfer, or lease the rights of the land use he or she has received from the DAR, the newly appointed top official of DAR-Bohol said.
He added that under the land reform law, farmer-beneficiaries can only sell the land after 10 years and only after the original lot owner has been fully compensated.
While CLOAs put the land ownership legally under the name of the beneficiary, it has some conditions and restrictions under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL), which include the limitations of the selling or transferring of ownership of the CLOA land to other people.
The issue surfaced after DAR noted that some beneficiaries, who need money, sell portions their awarded lands, unmindful of the law that disallows them to sell or lease the said lot for 10 years from the acceptance of the CLOA.