9,000 DAR employees to lose jobs

Manila, Philippines - Employees of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) appealed to President Aquino to intervene and help them as they are reportedly set to lose their jobs given the impending reorganization in the department.

In an open letter to the President, the Department of Agrarian Reform Employees Association (DAREA) said around 9,000 out of the 11,000 employees of DAR nationwide stand to lose their jobs because of the reorganization.

“Overall, these initiatives will result to the unemployment and dislocation from their families of more or less 9,000 rank-and-file employees who gave the best years of their lives to public service,” DAREA said.

The group said “the proposed 2013 budget of the DAR directs the scaling down of its organizational and staffing structure by June 30, 2014.”

“The proposed changes in the DAR will definitely redound against your goal of a professional, motivated and energized bureaucracy with adequate means to perform its public service missions,” the letter read.

The group likewise said the DAR is mandated by law to implement the Philippine agrarian reform program.

“But it cannot effectively do so with only less than a quarter of its personnel and the support services component of the program transferred to another agency,” said DAREA national president Antonia Pascual.

Meanwhile, Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes said that nothing is definite yet in connection with the plan of reorganization in the agency.

“That provision pertaining to reorganization, scaling down of employees under the DAR budget proposal, is still being reviewed,” said the secretary.

De los Reyes added that they are also coordinating with the Department of Agriculture regarding the issue since the two departments are both involved in the so-called convergence program.

He gave assurance that they are only after the good of all DAR employees.