93% of Luisita beneficiaries installed in lots awarded to them

MANILA, Philippines - An official of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said yesterday that 93 percent of farmer-beneficiaries in Hacienda Luisita have been installed in the respective lots awarded to them under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

DAR Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Anthony Parungao said 93.5 percent refers to the 5,808 farmer-beneficiaries who were distributed lands.

DAR said the total number of farmer-beneficiaries awarded lands under CARP is 6,212.

“So the number of farmer-beneficiaries left to be installed is 404, or just 6.5 percent of the total figure,” said Parungao.

As to lots where boundary markers have been placed, the official said they are almost finished, with 98.2 percent of farm lots (6,758) having undergone monumenting.

“We have finished monumenting almost all of the lots. We are now focused on installing the remaining beneficiaries,” he said.

Monumenting involves the physical delineation on the ground of the beneficiaries’ CARP-awarded land by placing boundary markers or mujons.

“We are confident that our self-imposed deadline for monumenting the lots and installing the farmer-beneficiaries, which has been set before May ends, will be met unless outside forces obstruct the department’s activities,” said Parungao.

He also said that the DAR has been encouraging and assisting beneficiaries to build organizations so that the agency would be more effective in channeling its support service programs and resources.

“We are assisting the farmer-beneficiaries in making their transition into owner-cultivators. We are helping them organize themselves so that they are able to better organize farm production and marketing of their produce,” he said.

Parungao added that the DAR has encouraged the voluntary physical grouping of contiguous lots so that scheduling of use of farming machinery such as tractors would be more rational.