Sixty former rebels (FRs) in Negros Oriental have completed the requirements for government land acquisition and titling and are waiting for their Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOA).

These former rebels had already been profiled, according to Major Jecey Batiller, the Civil-Military Operations officer and spokesperson of the 302nd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army based in Negros Oriental’s Tanjay City, so they may be included in the housing program under the provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (TF-ELCAC).

Manuel Galon Jr., Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer 1 of the Department of Agrarian Reform in Negros Oriental, said they had already received a notice to proceed with the granting of the CLOAs from their central office.

The FRs will be issued individual land titles through CLOA for 13 hectares of land in Barangay Bongalona, Basay town.

The area is part of the former CDCP Mining Corporation, now a government-owned and controlled corporation.

The land distribution is based on Executive Order 75 which “directs all departments, bureaus, offices, and instrumentalities of the government to identify lands owned by the government devoted to or suitable for agriculture for distribution to qualified beneficiaries,” the DAR official said.

Alongside its private partners, the provincial TF-ELCAC will build at least 100 individual houses on a one-hectare lot while the remaining area will be for communal farming and a community center, Galon said.

Kawayan Collective, a private firm promoting the use of bamboo for housing and other projects, has been tapped to build the units.

Galon said another ocular inspection is set in the coming months to fast-track the implementation of the project, the first of its kind on Negros Island for former rebels who decided to return to the fold of law. (PNA)