DAR sticks to 100,000-ha distribution target

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) will stick to its land distribution target of 100,000 hectares this year despite the lack of funds for the program.

"It is still our fighting target. It would really be difficult because of the reduced budget for land acquisition but we are still aiming for it," said Agrarian Reform Secretary Roberto Pagdanganan Jr.

Pagdanganan said DAR is working out with the Presidential Commission on Good Govern-ment (PCGG) the possibility of tapping some P20 billion in ill-gotten wealth of the late President Ferdinand Marcos that could be used to bankroll the agency’s land acquisition activities.

At the same time, DAR is also asking the World Bank to ease some of the conditionalities at-tached to the loans it granted to the Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) which uses a portion of these loans for the Comprehen-sive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Under the law, Landbank ad-vances the bulk of the financial re-quirements of CARP. It grants financial and technical support to beneficiaries and compensates landowners whose lands were ac-quired by government for redistri-bution to qualified beneficiaries.

Landbank president and chief executive officer Margarito Teves said there is increasing pressure on Landbank’s financial resources especially if land claims under the government’s CARP go up.

Last year, Landbank’s cash advances for CARP went up to P3.044 billion, from P1.5 billion during the same period last year, because of higher land valuation.

The Landbank estimated that for 50,000 hectares of land, it will need P5.6 billion to pay landowners.

This year however, DAR said it will speed up the acquisition of lands to at least 100,000 hectares which would need P7.1 billion.

"We need alternative funding. As it is, the claim folders are nearing 50,000 hectares, if this is raised further, the pressure will build up," Teves said.