Agrarian beneficiary gets back land sold to another by former owner

          PAMBUJAN, Northern Samar – After eight years of having been deprived her awarded land, an agrarian reform beneficiary from a remote village in this town regains her farm lot and is excited to start tilling again this month of June.

           Although she has not completely recovered the entire 2.7-hectare riceland awarded to her in 2003 under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), Lilia Galupo expressed her gratitude to the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for helping her get back at least half of the contested land, for now.

          According to Galupo, a 65-year-old widow, the former owner of the said land, Eufemio dela Cruz, told her that the Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) in her possession was “fake.”

          Due to ignorance, Galupo believed dela Cruz and surrendered the land, which the latter allegedly sold to Ben Revilles in 2014 in the amount of One Hundred Thousand Pesos.

          Only recently, Galupo’s son, Alberto, inquired with the DAR Central Office if the CLOA in their possession is indeed “fake.” It was only then that the Galupos realized that their CLOA was authentic and that they were deceived by dela Cruz.

          DAR Central Office then ordered the DAR Regional Office to settle the issue. The Regional Quick Response Officer, Felix Dante Espina, immediately summoned Galupo, dela Cruz and Revilles.

          According to Espina, during the dialogue, Revilles agreed to return to the Galupos the land allegedly sold to him by dela Cruz, subject to a refund of the compensation paid.

          He added that during the said confrontation, Consuelo dela Cruz, niece of the former owner of the contested land, said that they will pay Revilles in installment for a period of two years, which Revilles approved. But when the Galupos were about to start cultivating their awarded lot, Lilia again complained that they are being harassed by Revilles.

          Revilles this time insisted that he be fully refunded first of the amount he paid to dela Cruz before he surrenders the land.

          During the second round of dialogue, Espina said the two parties agreed to share the contested land by temporarily dividing it equally until the issue on payment is resolved.

          With joy and excitement that they could finally restart cultivating her awarded land, Lilia repeatedly uttered the word “Salamat!” to the DAR personnel who hiked about two kilometers to conduct an ocular inspection of the contested property in Barangay San Ramon just to resolve the issue.

          Meanwhile, Revilles commented “It is hard for me. But for the sake of peaceful resolution, and for your (referring to the DAR personnel) effort who still came from Tacloban City just to resolve this issue, I accept the decision.” ###