Palace: Gov’t sticking to land distribution targets

MANILA, Philippines - The government is sticking to its land distribution targets despite proposals in Congress to extend the agrarian reform law by five years, Malacañang said yesterday.

“As far as it is concerned, the DAR (Department of Agrarian Reform) continues to work as if there is no proposal to extend the agrarian reform program, as targets have already been set,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte told radio station dzRB in Filipino.

Valte said the issuance of notices of coverage for lots that are more than 10 hectares may be completed by December. Notices of coverage for lots below 10 hectares may be finished by July 1, 2013, she added.

“We also made it clear that even if the June 2014 deadline comes, as long as the notices of coverage were issued, the process will continue,” she said.

Valte said DAR officials are ready to discuss with Congress the proposal to extend the agrarian reform program by five years.

“DAR (officials are) ready to appear before committee hearings to provide information and act as resource persons to our lawmakers when called. They will be needed for the deliberation of that proposed law,” she said.

Valte declined to comment on whether the proposed extension is necessary. “We will reserve our comment until we actually see the proposed law because there are finer points that have to be taken into consideration. And it’s not just the actual extension,” she said.

It was Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and his brother Maximo of Abante Mindanao party-list who are pushing for the agrarian reform law extension through House Bill 6614.

The bill mandates DAR, in coordination with the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council, to plan and program the final acquisition and distribution of unacquired and undistributed lands until June 30, 2019.

In their explanatory note, the bill’s authors said there are still numerous landless farmers all over the country 25 years after the agrarian reform law was enacted.

They said the DAR target for this year is to process 180,000 hectares of land but the agency was only able to process 32,403.90 hectares.

“The DAR also targeted to have 17,254 hectares of land under leasehold agreements in 2012 but they were only able to have 7,724 hectares,” the bill’s explanatory note read.

Only 7,903 of 20,144 pending agrarian reform cases have been resolved, they added.

Regarding agrarian legal assistance cases, only 286 have been submitted for resolution, way below the target of 1,390 cases.

“There are still more to be done which makes it necessary to extend the life of the DAR and the effectivity of the CARP (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program) law,” the bill’s authors said.