Grounds for CLOA Cancellation

What are the grounds for CLOA Cancellation?

CLOA (Certificate of Land Ownership Award) by the way is a document or we can call it the end-product of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) under the auspices of RA 6657 otherwise known as The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law being implemented by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

Basically, CLOA is a Title of Land issued by the DAR and must be registered at the Registry of Deeds (ROD).

The Grounds for CLOA cancellation are the following:

1. The landholding involves the retention area of the landowner
2. The landholding is exempted from coverage
3. Defective notice of coverage
4. The landholding is outside of the authority of DAR to dispose of
5. Erroneously issued titles as a result of erroneous technical description and
   cancellation of lost title prior to issuance of the certificate of deposit
6. Misuse or diversion of financial and support services extended to the beneficiary
7. A material misrepresentation of the beneficiaries’ basic qualifications under the agrarian
   reform laws: sale, transfer, lease, or other forms of conveyance by the beneficiary
   of rights over the land in circumvention of agrarian laws
8. Continued neglect or abandonment of the awarded land over a period of 2 calendar
   years
9. Absolute and deliberate failure to pay an aggregate of 3 consecutive amortizations
   to the land bank
10. Conversion to non-agricultural use
11. Waiver of rights to awarded lands
12. Beneficiaries surrender of awarded land to the landowner or other non-beneficiary
13. Misuse of the land
14. Other acts or omissions that circumvent laws related to agrarian reform
    implementation

How to apply for CLOA Title?

There are no specific requirements for the CLOA application. The DAR only requires that you are a tenant farmer and that the farm being cultivated or tilled has a tenancy agreement or arrangement with the landowner.

Accordingly, the farmers are the direct beneficiary of the CARP, which is basically the distribution of farmland to landless farmers.

In the process of the determination of farmer-beneficiaries, the Municipal Agrarian Reform Office (MARO) shall identify and determine the qualified beneficiaries with the assistance from the BARC – Barangay Agrarian Reform Committee (DAR Adm. Order No.5,  Series of 1989).

It would take a long process of documentation and validation before the issuance of CLOA.

It involves from the MARO to the PARO (Provincial Agrarian Reform Office) for review, then to RARO (Regional Agrarian Reform Office) for further review and evaluation, and eventually for a recommendation for approval to the higher authority – Secretary of DAR.

In case a CLOA title is awarded to the wrong beneficiary, you can advise the truly qualified farmer-beneficiaries to file for a petition for nullification of CLOA Title at the DARAB (Dept. of Agrarian Adjudication Board) at your locality citing that the bonafide or the legitimate farmers have not given the preference in the determination of beneficiaries as mandated under the law.