The Department of Agrarian Reform has chided the farmer’s group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas for accusing Secretary John Castriciones of “early campaigning” through its DAR-to-DOOR program of land distribution.
Castriciones said even before the COVID-19 pandemic, he has already been “aggressively” implementing President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive of “urgently and immediately” distributing all available agricultural lands under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
According to DAR, it was during the time of Castriciones when the largest and second largest single-day certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) distribution happened in the history of the project implementation in General Santos City, SOCCSKARGEN on June 13, 2019. That involved 12,548 CLOAs in a 24,000-hectare agricultural land for 13,585 beneficiaries, and in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato on Dec. 29, 2018 with 6,000 CLOAs in an 11,334-hectare agricultural land to 6,424 the farmer-beneficiaries.
Danilo Ramos, KMP chairperson, accused Castriciones of “early campaigning,” saying the DAR-to-DOOR program was Castriciones’ blatant nationwide electoral sortie funded by public funds allocated for farmers.
According to DAR’s statement, Castriciones declined the offer of President to run for senator in the 2019 mid-term elections, and continue his advocacy to institute genuine agrarian reform for the farmers.
“Seemingly on an almost weekly basis, Castriciones and his junket tour a different province. He is unnecessary in the deliverance of CLOAs. Magkano ang ginagastos ng bayan para pondohan ang mga byahe niyang ito?” Ramos asks.
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the program is made more unnecessary and excessive by the increased costs of traveling due to the need for swab tests and successive oil price hikes.
But the DAR chief said Ramos did not completely understand the genuine objective of the DAR-to-DOOR program and its importance, especially during the pandemic.
“Now more than ever when food production and sufficiency of the entire country hangs in the balance, it is of the utmost important to let our farmers feel the very important role they play in feeding the entire Filipino people. DAR-to-DOOR brings not only DAR but the entire government closer to the people, especially to farmers who for the longest time have been the victims of social injustice,” he said.
The agency said Ramos and the rest of the KMP leadership only “reveals to be insensitive to the plight of the farmers needing hope and inspiration during this pandemic, and the public servants serving the farmers.”