Oro distributed 2,000 land titles since 2013

By Nitz Arancon
Correspondent . 

CITY hall has distributed at least 2,000 land titles to beneficiaries since Mayor Oscar Moreno organized the Task Force Emancipation Program in 2013.

Lawyer and ex-councilor Edgar Cabanlas bared this to reporters during the distribution of land titles in Sitio Macanhan, Barangay Carmen Thursday afternoon.

In a simple ceremony, Moreno personally handed about 50 land titles to Piso-piso beneficiaries in Macanhan. The beneficiaries are covered under the Piso-piso program of then-Mayor Vicente Emano who were given certificates of ownership awards only.

Cabanlas, who serves as the task force’s chairman, said the distribution of the land titles serves as a testament to Moreno’s promise in 2013 that the beneficiaries would finally own the land where their houses stand. A feat, Cabanlas added, that Emano has not achieved in his 12-year rule as city mayor and three years as vice mayor.

For her part, Councilor Suzette Magtajas-Daba said the distribution of land titles in Macanhan proved that only Moreno was effective in emancipating the people.

She added that this was a dream of her father, the late former mayor Pablo Magtajas, who bought the land from the Tamparong family.

Moreno said he saw to it that the beneficiaries get their land titles to prove that the emancipation program of city hall is not just a cheap political gimmick.

Now that the beneficiaries are holding titles to their land, he added, the traditional politicking phrase “no vote, ibot” is no longer applicable.

Moreno said Emano used the Piso-piso program to threaten the beneficiaries of eviction from Macanhan and other past city hall-sponsored relocation sites in the city if they would not vote for the slate of the Padayon Pilipino party.