TO be able to still cover 100,000 hectares of private farm lots under the agrarian reform program, the Department of Agrarian Reform is batting for another extension of the program four years after its expiration in June 2014.
At a news conference at DAR main office in Quezon City, Undersecretary David Erro of the Policy, Planning and Research Office bared the agency’s plan to submit a draft bill seeking the extension of the program applicable “only for privately owned agricultural lands” once the House of Representatives resumes its session on May 15.
“We will ask Congress to enact a law to extend the program so we could still be allowed to issue notices of coverage [NOCs], place at least 100,000 hectares of private farm lots under the program and distribute them to farmer-beneficiaries,” he told reporters.
“When the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program [Extension with Reforms] had lapsed on June 30, 2014, DAR was allowed to process [land acquisition and distribution of] private lots with NOCs beyond that period,” he said.
He said Secretary John Castriciones will ask President Rodrigo Duterte to certify the draft bill as urgent.
Despite its readiness to transmit the bill on May 15, Erro said, DAR has not yet calculated the exact timeframe of the new proposed extension.
The department has yet to distribute 561,000 hectares of private agricultural lots with NOCs at the rate of 50,000 hectares per year, he said.
“We really need more time to be able to distribute 561,000 hectares and to place another 100,000 hectares under the program,” he noted.
“We will be talking to congressmen to author our draft bill,” he said.
When it comes to government-owned agricultural land, Erro said Castriciones has instructed DAR’s legal service division to draft an executive order recommending the coverage of abandoned or idle government-owned lands under the agrarian reform program.
“We can acquire and distribute more or less 6,000 hectares of lot belonging to the Davao Penal Colony; a portion of Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija, a military reservation; agricultural lots within state universities and colleges, and in some other areas. These can be turned over to us through an executive order so we could distribute them to farmer-beneficiaries,” he said.
The draft executive order will be submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte next week, he said.
Last May 1, the President spearheaded the distribution of certificates of land ownership to the farmers of Hacienda Matias in Mulanay, Quezon.
He then ordered DAR to distribute idle private and government lands to the poor farmers.
Meanwhile, DAR, along Greco Belgica of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission, will act on the 800 “personnel disciplined complaints” pending before the legal service division.
“Those involved will undergo a preliminary investigation. The complaints have dragged on for so many years. This is reason why the figure is that big,” Erro said.
Castriciones warned that “heads will roll” in pursuit of his “no-holds barred” campaign.