Duterte wants all areas under land reform

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — President Duterte would like all available land in the country placed under land reform within the remaining three years of his term.

He expressed the sentiment on Monday as he led the distribution of lands to landless farmers, many of them members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and non-Muslim indigenous communities.

The certificate of land ownership awards (CLOA) covers 1,740 hectares of lands given to Muslim, Christian and Lumad agrarian reform beneficiaries.

In his message, Duterte lambasted the New People’s Army (NPA) for promising land reform to people in areas where it operates to obscure its violent activities that are focused on toppling the government.

“It is the government that can do land reform, not you. You don’t even have typewriters,” Duterte said, referring to the NPA.

He also urged the CLOA recipients to support the government’s peace overture with the MILF to hasten the peaceful closure of decades of secessionist strife in southern Mindanao.

Duterte instructed Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriones to make sure that land will be distributed to all citizens, including former NPA rebels.

He said up to 60,000 hectares could be distributed under the land reform program during his time.

“In that way we do not need the NPA already because everybody has land to till,” he added.

While in the province, Duterte also unveiled the marker for the new provincial capitol building in Buluan town together with Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, Vice Gov. Lester Sinsuat and Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.– With Edith Regalado