'DAR to have sole authority to handle agrarian disputes'

MANILA, Philippines - The recent Supreme Court (SC) ruling on the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) signals the start of its smooth implementation that would define the role of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to intervene in disputes and other cases under the social justice program.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman said the SC decision would give DAR the sole authority to handle agrarian disputes.

Pangandaman said the SC decision is a welcome relief to DAR field implementers, who often find themselves harassed, intimidated and, at times, charged in court in the course of doing their jobs, as it cleared what is deemed as the last obstacle to CARP implementation.

He said the new ruling should be viewed as a strong signal that nothing is exempted from CARP coverage.

Pangandaman said DAR is determined to finish its task of distributing the remaining one million hectares of agricultural lands nationwide.

“The latest ruling is a big follow-up to the high court’s previous decision, conferring on DAR the exclusive jurisdiction to hear agrarian and other related cases,” he said.

Pangandaman declared everything seems to be falling in place, starting with the passage of the CARP Law in August last year, extending the program for five more years and providing it with sufficient funding in the amount of P150 billion.

The agency has done a decent job of distributing some 4.163 million hectares of agricultural lands out of its total scope of 5.164 million hectares, despite strong opposition from influential landlords, he said.

Pangandaman said the past 10 years of CARP saw DAR being pushed to the limit, but it still managed to distribute some 1.13 million hectares of mostly contentious commercial and privately owned landholdings.

“The ball is now in the hands of president-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to finish the job and fulfill the promise of his late mother, former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino, to make the entire country agrarian reformed,” Pangandaman said.