DAR completes lot allocations for Luisita beneficiaries

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) announced that it has wrapped up lot allocation activities for all farmworker-beneficiaries in the 10 barangays covering Hacienda Luisita.

The lot allocation for the last batch of more than 800 farmworker-beneficiaries in Barangay Mapalacsiao was conducted last Aug. 19.

The first lot allocation took place last July 18 in Barangay Cutcut, and subsequent ones were held successively twice weekly in the barangays of Lourdes, Bantog, Asturias, Motrico, Pando, Mabilog, Parang, and Balete.

Originally, two days were allotted for lot allocation in each barangay, but DAR personnel managed to finish the activity in one day in each of the barangays, largely due to the cooperation of the beneficiaries themselves.

For each barangay where lot allocation was completed, the DAR immediately started generating the land titles (called Certificates of Land Ownership Award or CLOAs) that would be given to the beneficiaries who were given their Lot Allocation Certificates and had signed their Applications to Purchase and Farmer’s Undertaking (APFUs).

DAR Undersecretary Anthony Parungao, who supervised the lot allocations, said roughly 90 percent of the qualified beneficiaries in all barangays attended or were represented in the drawing of lots for them to receive their Lot Allocation Certificates and affix their signatures on the APFUs.

“Those who failed to attend the drawing of lots had been advised to go to the DAR provincial office in Tarlac to receive their Lot Allocation Certificates and sign the APFUs,” Parungao said.

Both documents are needed for the DAR to generate the CLOAs to be distributed to all qualified beneficiaries of Hacienda Luisita.

Each beneficiary will own farm lots with an area of at least 6,600 square meters.

DAR Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes said all agrarian reform beneficiaries in private agricultural lands, not only the Hacienda Luisita farmworkers, are required to sign the APFU as a pre-condition for owning land under the agrarian reform program.

“Refusal of any identified farmer-beneficiary to sign the APFU is a ground for the farmer or farmworker to be stricken out of the list of beneficiaries and be replaced by other qualified beneficiaries,” he said.

“This is so because the signing of the APFU manifests the willingness of the farmer-beneficiary to abide by his/her obligation under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which is to cultivate the farm lots awarded to them, pay the amortization based on the lands’ assessed value as well as the real estate taxes, and desist from committing prohibited acts,” he added.

De los Reyes said existing laws on the CARP implementation require all farmer-beneficiaries in private agricultural lands to pay the lots awarded to them through government-subsidized amortization.

The APFU serves as the basis of the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) in preparing the schedule of amortization, setting the date when farmer-beneficiaries should pay the amount due to the bank.

Scheduled payments for CARP-awarded lands are set for 30 years. The awarded land cannot be converted to other uses, other than agricultural, within five years and cannot be sold within 10 years from the time of awarding.