Women farmers of Leyte obtain documents to prove ownership of lands, thank DAR for the help
HILONGOS, Leyte –A female-dominated agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organization (ARBO) in a remote village in this town thanked the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for helping them obtain legal documents that would strengthen their claim as legitimate owners over two lots they acquired.
The 272 members of the Barangay Agutayan Farmers Association (BAFA), including the 63 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), where 165 of them are women, learned that the properties they have acquired for several years now could be taken back from them because they do not have the legal documents to prove ownership. This was discovered when Ruben Rebato, DAR Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer (MARPO) visited them in the mountain village of Agutayan 2nd week of March 2023.
While checking the documents, Rebato found out that although BAFA was progressing as an organization with assets now reaching ₱4.5-million, legal documents that would prove ownership over a lot they had purchased and another one donated to them, were missing.
BAFA lady-president, Vicenta Jaray, even hinted Rebato that the heirs of the previous owner who donated the lot where their organization’s building was constructed, are allegedly planning to take the property back from them.
Rebato, who used to be a legal officer of DAR, is now helping the BAFA officers obtain the “Extrajudicial Settlement with Deed of Sale” for the lot they had purchased and “Deed of Transfer” for the donated lot, to secure their claims of ownership over these lands.
Further, Rebato promised to guide them in preparing business contracts for the organization’s various business ventures, which include vermicast production.
Happy with the turnout of their first meeting with Rebato, Jaray said, “We hope that you will not be transferred immediately to another office, sir.”
Program Beneficiaries Development lawyering (PBD-Lawyering), according to PBD Chief, Melecia Ong, is one of the assistance being extended by the DAR to the ARBs and ARBOs to make their activities and assets legitimate, among others.