DAR urging Luisita farmer-beneficiaries to set up organizations

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is urging farmer-beneficiaries in Hacienda Luisita to set up organizations that will make it easy for them to access support services from the government.

DAR Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Anthony Parungao said these farmers’ groups will also in effect help DAR become more effective and efficient in channeling the department’s support service programs and resources.

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

Parungao said these organizations will also make it easier for the farmer-beneficiaries to access credit because financial institutions are more inclined to provide loans and financial support to organizations rather than to individual farmers.

The DAR provincial office has been able to assist farmer-beneficiaries in setting up organizations in eight of the 10 barangays in Hacienda Luisita.

Parungao said the DAR has also encouraged the voluntary physical grouping of contiguous lots so the use of farming machinery such as tractors would be more efficient.

The DAR earlier expressed confidence that it would be able to meet its target of “monumenting” the lots – or placing of boundary markers or “mujon” – and installing the beneficiaries of the Hacienda Luisita estate in the coming weeks.

As of April 7, Parungao said 5,947 farmlots, or 86.32 percent, have been “monumented.” Of the number, 4,478 or 65 percent have farmer-beneficiaries already installed.

The DAR is confident that it could meet its self-imposed deadline of “monumenting” the lots and installing the farmer-beneficiaries by next month.