The Department of Agrarian Reform-7 needs five more years to cover and distribute 60,000 more lands in Central Visayas under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
DAR-7 director Rodulfo Inson said the distribution and coverage of 60,000 more hectares of land will be accomplished in another five years.
This after the CARP expired on June 10 after its first extension was granted 10 years ago.
The five years, Inson said, is the target completion date for the working out of the Land Tenure Improvement component.
But the extension of support services to the already organized Agrarian Reform Communities should continue even after five years.
Since this was implemented in 1998, DAR is already able to distribute 600,000 lands mostly from big landowners.
There are now 109 ARCs that received support services in terms of infrastructure, credit, education, and other livelihood-aimed assistance.
For this year, DAR has to distribute some 180,000 hectares nationwide but it still faced with the acquisition and distribution of around 1.1 million hectares of landholdings across the country, Inson said.
After the House of Representatives failed to extend the CARP, Speaker Prospero Nograles said last Friday that its validity is until December of this year only.
On the other hand, there has been a clamor from some congressmen and senators to seek an inquiry and inventory into the status of unpaid compensation to former landowners whose lands were acquired and distributed by the government under CARP that expired June 10. — Ferliza C. Contratista/MEEV