CEBU CITY — In its effort to hasten the distribution of the certificate of land ownership awards (CLOA), the Region 7 office of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) recently hosted a two-day- accreditation seminar to address the problem on defective survey results.

The two-day seminar was done in this city’s Hotel Asia with some 50 licensed geodetic engineers and contractors from the Visayas and Mindanao attending. The event was likewise intended to address concerns regarding defective survey results which cause delay in the distribution of CLOAs.

DAR7 Regional Director Rodolfo T. Inson bared that faulty survey results often cause setbacks in the generation of the CLOA which is an integral part of the DAR’s land acquisition and distribution program.

Also known as emancipation patents, the CLOAs are given to farmer beneficiaries of DAR so as to enable them to own land. However, a CLOA is not considered yet the official land title because said beneficiaries must first have to fully pay up the cost of land allotted to them by Government before such land is officially transferred to their names.

Meanwhile, Inson admitted that with the problem on defective survey results, “the department might not hit its goal every year, and that is why there was a need to orient the engineers on the new thrusts of the DAR as mandated under RA 9700 otherwise known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program with Reforms (CARPER).”

Inson added that the seminar which also served as accreditation for geodetic engineers, was done for the first time with only those attending said activity eventually qualified to bid for and contract DAR survey projects. Such accreditation is good for two years.