The Department of Agrarian Reform distributed 33.1488 hectares of agricultural lands, portions of which were formerly covered as resettlement areas, to 61 agrarian reform beneficiaries in Nueva Ecija.
Secretary Bernie Cruz advised the farmers to till the lands awarded to them and make them productive.
“It is payback time and these lands are considered as gifts to the people of Pantabangan for the sacrifices they have experienced when floodwaters from the then newly created dam submerged their town and its environs,” he said.
Eden Ponio, provincial agrarian reform program officer II in Nueva Ecija, said the land titles cover 33.1488 hectares of agricultural lands that are located in the municipalities of Talavera
and Pantabangan.
The agency has successfully worked out to distribute the certificates of land ownership award, some of which were formerly covered as a resettlement area under Republic Act 3844.