DAR to help Luisita farmers make claim

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is willing to help farm workers of Hacienda Luisita by securing required documents necessary to validate their being qualified beneficiaries.

Secretary Virgilio De Los Reyes said his office could extend assistance to those who lost copies of important papers by getting these directly from the National Statistics Office (NSO).

De Los Reyes said the DAR is offering the NSO-application service to the heirs of the Luisita farm workers who might have lost their copies of documents or are unable to get new copies due to lack of money.

To qualify as potential beneficiaries, heirs are required to produce copies of the death certificate of farm workers employed in Hacienda Luisita on or before Nov. 21, 1989.

Aside from the death certificate, the widow or widower of a farm worker is required to show a marriage certificate while children claiming to be successors-in-interest should submit birth certificates, all with the NSO seal of authenticity.

On the other hand, farm workers still alive will be only asked to produce their identification cards when they appear for scheduled interviews or for any other transactions with DAR personnel, De Los Reyes said.

He said heirs of farm workers who have no supporting documents (death, marriage or birth certificates) need only to fill up the NSO application forms to be provided by DAR personnel during the interview.

De Los Reyes noted the DAR Central Office would assume the responsibility of submitting the applications in bulk to the NSO.

NSO officials are said to have agreed to accept the bulk application after De Los Reyes wrote them last week to explain that such a system would expedite the land distribution process in Hacienda Luisita.

In his letter to Carmelita Ericta, NSO administrator and civil registrar general, Delos Reyes said the DAR has decided to “order, on any claimant’s behalf, a certified true copy of their birth or marriage certificate and the qualified beneficiary’s death certificate” in order to “make the process more efficient, and also to provide aid and support to potential beneficiaries.”

The bulk processing of documents, he said, is nothing new to DAR.

The agency earlier said it was optimistic that the distribution of Hacienda Luisita lands to rightful farmer beneficiaries can be completed in six to 12 months.

A week ago, more than a hundred DAR personnel from its national and field offices started conducting information campaign regarding the April 24, 2012 decision of the Supreme Court on the distribution of Hacienda Luisita lands, as well as interviews of potential beneficiaries.

The resolution reaffirmed a November 2011 decision to distribute some 5,000 hectares of Hacienda Luisita land to the 6,296 farmer beneficiaries.