DAR Quezon personnel improves data collection through OPTOOL mechanism

Officials and personnel of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Quezon II province have geared up to enhance their database system by using the Operational Tool (OpTool) mechanism in the collection, inputting, and monitoring of the status of landholdings covered under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and Presidential Decree No. 27.

Engr. Cornelio P. Villapando, Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II, said the OpTool is the centralized repository system of the DAR-Bureau of Land Tenure Improvement (BLTI). OpTool contains data on the agency’s target, accomplishments, and other specifics, like profiles of landowners and agrarian reform beneficiaries, location, and the number of hectares covered by the program, among others.

“OpTool is an efficient system to work with various BLTI data. We, at the field office and central office collaborate in real-time to closely monitor the progress of each task so that we could create valid and accurate data to improve the overall efficiency of the DAR operations,” he said.

He said that Optool provides daily up-to-date reports generated from the DAR central, regional and provincial offices aimed at improving the analysis and decision-making of the DAR management.

Elizabeth Z. Villapando, BLTI OIC-Assistant Director, personally visited the province and discussed with them the preparation of a five-year DAR indicative plan, the need to provide complete and reliable supporting data, such as ARB profiles, and the importance of target-setting per year, based on the activity milestones reached by a landholding, which are all inputted in the OpTool.

“We saw the need to talk with the field personnel, to ramp up our collective efforts and better harmonize actions at different levels, particularly in data gathering and reporting of land acquisition and distribution (LAD) targets and accomplishments,” she said.

She stressed the need to build a credible and dependable database to have a ready reference and inform the various stakeholders of what the DAR is doing and has accomplished.

During the meeting, the BLTI officials and staff presented the current agency data, per OpTool results, as well as key issues and challenges facing the data monitoring system. The DAR field personnel provided clarifications and actual situations, which resulted in an insightful discussion of operational issues and concerns.