Farmer fulfills lifelong dream through DAR’s land distribution
By Nora L. Molde
BUTUAN CITY (PIA) — More than two months after receiving his long-awaited land title, 68-year-old Antonio P. Rosales of Barangay Del Pilar, Cabadbaran City, Agusan del Norte, reaffirmed his belief that a piece of land is more than just a dream as it is also a promise of stability, dignity, and hope.
After more than three decades of tilling the same farmland, Rosales finally achieved what he once thought was impossible, becoming the rightful owner of the land he had nurtured with sweat and perseverance since 1991.
That dream turned into reality on August 14, when he received his individual land title from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The title covers 4,596 square meters of farmland he had been cultivating for more than half his life.
“This is the moment I have been waiting for all my life,” Rosales said, holding his title close to his chest. “At last, I can look forward to a secure and brighter future for my family.”
For most of his life, Rosales endured poverty and uncertainty. With only an elementary education, he once worked as a coconut climber earning P280 a month and later tried gold panning just to feed his wife and six children. In 1991, he began cultivating a parcel of government-foreclosed land in their barangay, planting coconut, falcata, banana, and vegetables, his family’s only source of livelihood.
Despite the years of toil, the land was never his. “I always prayed that someday, I could call it my own,” he shared. That prayer was finally answered when the DAR recognized him as the actual tiller of the land in 2015. Ten years later, he officially became its owner.
Today, Rosales’s coconut and falcata farm continues to provide food and income for his family. His greatest pride, however, lies not in the land itself but in his six children—one of them now a college graduate, and the rest still pursuing their studies.
“My only wish is for my children to finish schooling. I don’t want them to be like me, someone who only knows how to write his name,” he said with quiet determination.
Rosales is one of 463 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in Agusan del Norte who received land titles covering a total of 608.11 hectares (ha). The regional distribution ceremony, led by DAR Secretary Conrado M. Estrella III, reaffirmed the government’s continuing commitment to improving farmers’ lives through equitable land ownership.
Across the Caraga region, the DAR has already distributed 33,694 hectares of land to 17,564 ARBs, broken down as follows: Agusan del Sur – 19,394.12 ha (8,965 ARBs); Surigao del Sur – 9,594 ha (4,941 ARBs); Surigao del Norte – 3,175.83 ha (2,312 ARBs); Dinagat Islands – 922.33 ha (883 ARBs); and Agusan del Norte – 608.11 ha (463 ARBs).
Through DAR’s sustained implementation of CARP, farmers like Rosales now enjoy not only the fruits of their labor but also the dignity, stability, and sense of fulfillment that come with finally owning the land they have long called home. (NCLM, PIA Agusan del Norte, with a report from DAR Agusan del Norte)
