DAR chief: Speed up land distribution
Land distribution and agricultural support for farmers should be accelerated given a Malacañang directive to implement an “aggressive” agrarian reform program, a Cabinet official said.
“Let us be proactive in serving our farmers through land distribution and provision of much needed support services,” Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones said during a recently-concluded 2018 mid-year performance review and planning session.
The department is looking to cover more private and public agricultural lands for distribution to landless farmers as it implements Phase 2 of the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
Castriciones said that issuance of certificates of landownership award (CLOAs) should be sped up along with the provision of various support services to farmer-beneficiaries.
“It’s foolishness to ever state that farmers or farm workers do not want to own land. There is no such reason for the slow distribution of land for this year,” he said.
Castriciones also emphasized the importance of forming agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organizations (ARBOs) and ordered municipal offices to visit and encourage all CLOA holders to join.
During the performance review, Agrarian Reform department regional directors identified opportunities for improvements to further enhance the implementation of projects, priority programs and management accountability.
Regional offices were told to draw up contracts stating their targets for this year.
Just last week, Castriociones ordered lands and land titles acquired by farmer-beneficiaries under CARP that were transferred to unscrupulous businessmen returned to the government. He said these lands would be redistributed to “more responsible and deserving farmers.”
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