New marching orders from the DAR chief
MABALACAT, Pampanga—“Let us be proactive in serving our farmers through land distribution and provision of much needed support services.”
This was the marching order of Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary John R. Castriciones at the conclusion of the agency’s 2019 mid-year formative assessment and performance review held recently at the Fontana Leisure Park, Clark Freeport Zone.
The activity was conducted to ensure that targets of speedy land distribution, support to farmers and zero backlog of agrarian cases are met along with the the directives of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte are integrated into the programs and services of the DAR.
As it implements the second phase of the agrarian reform program, the department endeavors to carry out the directive of the President to finish the land acquisition and distribution (LAD) program by 2022.
“At present, we have already done steps in streamlining the land conversion process. The inter-agency task force on land use conversion has already drafted the implementing rules and regulations on land use conversion,” Castriciones said.
The task force was formed to further expedite the process of converting agricultural lands for residential, commercial, and industrial use, and submit a report on the anomalies in the conversion processes.
Castriciones also directed the DAR field operations office to come up with proposals for the streamlining of LAD processes.
The DAR is also focusing on Executive Order 75 where it is ordered to distribute all government-owned lands devoted to or suitable for agriculture but are no longer actually, directly and exclusively used for the purpose for which they have been reserved so they can be distributed to qualified beneficiaries.
“This E.O. will help us. This will be a boost to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. This will fast-track the distribution of lands, particularly government-owned lands, to qualified beneficiaries,” Castriciones said.
As of last month, the DAR has released the implementing rules and regulations of E.O. 75, signed by Castriciones and Department of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra.
“Now that the IRR has been signed and released, we’re now ready to proceed with the process of land acquisition and distribution,” Castriciones said.
Another order of the President is to convert “all collective land titles” to individual certificates of land ownership awards (CLOA) of agrarian reform beneficiaries.
Castriciones said, “To accomplish the President’s directive, we have created a separate office that will facilitate the breaking up of collective CLOAs into individual CLOAs.”
He added that the office of the Agrarian Reform Title Stabilization (ARTS), which is headed by Assistant Secretary Elmer Distor, will be “forming teams and providing a timeline and guidelines in the implementation” of President Duterte’s order.
DAR Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Luis Meinrado Pangulayan said the DAR is also challenging itself this year to achieve a zero backlog in the resolution of cases related to agrarian justice delivery.
“Our major target is to address the needs of our primary clients—the farmer-beneficiaries, the landless farmers, and the farmworkers with due regard to the rights of landowners,” said Pangulayan.
“We endeavor our targets starting this year until 2022 to achieve a zero backlog for both the Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board and Agrarian Legal Implementation cases,” he added.
At the performance review, the participants identified the internal and external drivers and barriers of the DAR, which either helped or hindered in the achievements of its targets.
DAR regional directors also identified opportunities for improvements to further enhance the implementation of DAR’s projects, priority programs and management accountability.
To meet department targets, Castriciones ordered each DAR offices to draw up a catch-up plan for the remaining second semester of 2019.
“I want this done to ensure that we properly implement our mandate and deliver the support services to our farmer-beneficiaries,” Castriciones said.
Castriciones directed his officials to implement agrarian reform laws to aid in fighting for farmers’ rights and expediting agrarian legal cases.
“With these directives, the workforce of the department would do its best to implement programs and projects that would intensify land distribution, delivery of judicious agrarian justice and provision of support services,” Castriciones said.
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