PRESIDENT RODRIGO R. Duterte will lead the distribution of Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) and turnover of common service facilities to agrarian reform beneficiaries in Davao City, his hometown, on March 15, Malacañang announced on Sunday. Mr. Duterte also led the distribution of CLOAs to beneficiaries in Sagay City, Negros Occidental last Friday, March 8. “For my remaining three years, I will give away all government-owned lands to the people. They are of no use to the government anyway. The mountains are very vast. Except for the military reservation. Their area is very large. But there’s nothing like that in the mountains. So I instructed [Agrarian Reform Secretary John R.] Castriciones to give the lands away to the people because that is one of our most pressing problems,” he said in his speech. “This war will never end if we don’t give them land. These people dream of a better life for their children, better than their life and the life of their forefathers,” he added. “(T)here is always a time for everything. There is always a time to be a landowner with boundless lands. There’s nothing wrong with that. I mean, I do not have anything against big landowners. But I remember those were given by government in the years passed. The Kastilas (Spaniards) who did not go home to Spain were called insulares. They were the ones who received lands from the government,” he said. — Arjay L. Balinbin

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