ORKALEFF is instrumental in the successful installation of 377 CLOA holders to a total area of 446.5217 hectares in Ormoc and Kananga, Leyte. Ever since its establishment in 2017, the federation assisted its members in fast-tracking their installation with DAR, as well as in monitoring land rights-related cases. The federation also mobilized to show solidarity and provide assistance to agrarian reform beneficiaries in every installation activity, along with other key institutions such as DAR, PNP, KAISAHAN, DRR, DOH, DSWD, CHR, and the Ombudsman.

The federation#s support for the agrarian reform beneficiaries extended to post-installation activities, as an effort to protect the gains of agrarian reform. ORKALEFF ensured that the awarded lands are productive by promoting multi-cropping and being a conduit to access various support services from public and private providers. Through ORKALEFF, the installed ARBs received the following:

# Farm equipment
o Farm truck (1 unit)
o Kubota tractor (1 unit)
o Thresher (7 units)
o Land Master (6 units)
o Carabaos (5 heads)
o Farm ducks (100 heads)
o Cultivator (2 units)
o Water pumps (4 units)
# Training sessions on farm technology
# Mushroom production training and capital build-up
# Various farm inputs

With ORKALEFF’s efforts, the ARBs, who are rice farmers, get at least 120 sacks of rice per hectare as their average gross yield every harvest. The other farmers (who were former farmworkers), on the other hand, started earning income from multi-cropping in their awarded lands and from mushroom production. With these changes, the farmers were able to pay their loans, provide food security for their families, improve their houses, and get better access to health and education. One of our members also got legally married to his partner because he finally had the money to do so.

In short, the federation has contributed to land rights advocacy in the province of Leyte, and in improving the quality of life of its members.

The Department of Agrarian Reform launched the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling Project (SPLIT) in October 2020, which will grant individual titles to collective CLOA holders as mandated under CARP within three years. But land rights groups, like ORKALEFF and KAISAHAN, caution DAR to first ensure that ARBs are not vulnerable to pawning or selling their land and are capable to make their land productive.
In Leyte, SPLIT targets 3,000 collective CLOAs awarded to farmers now in their 60s or mid-50s or deceased. Some may be unable to farm but with heirs who can continue farming their land. It is crucial that these ARBs retain land ownership, especially now with the economic pressures from the COVID-19 pandemic. How will the SPLIT project involve these ageing farmers and their heirs’ given COVID-19 restrictions for senior citizens and mass gatherings?
ORKALEFF and KAISAHAN targets to influence DAR to ensure that ageing ARB members and their heirs are qualified to benefit from the SPLIT project are not disenfranchised, and understand the repercussions of individual titling under SPLIT on their land rights.
Specifically, it targets the following:
1. Local and national criteria and processes for the validation and prioritization of beneficiaries under the SPLIT project are influenced in favor of the qualified ageing ARBs and youth heirs.
2. Ageing ORKALEFF members and youth heirs are not disenfranchised or forced into parcelization by the SPLIT processes.
3. Clearer policies on ARB succession in collective EPs/CLOAs and policy or government directives on the provision of support services to ARB SPLIT beneficiaries are issued.
The project will focus on ORKALEFF members in Ormoc City and Kananga and KAISAHAN partner ARB organizations in municipalities of Capoocan and Alangalang in Leyte. Other key actors are DAR, concerned agencies and CSO advocates.