DAR implements 'right to information'

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has gone one step further in the fight against corruption in the bureaucracy when it adopted and implemented in all of its offices nationwide the “right to information” for the effective and transparent disposition of cases.

DAR Secretary Gil de los Reyes stated in the Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 7, series of 2011, that “the right to information and access to official documents to cases is integral to the land rights of farmers, farm workers and tenants.” He signed the circular last July 19.

Since the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program extension with reform (CARPer) Law affirmed the farmers’ legal standing as real parties in interest to cases involving the land they till, De los Reyes said that it is only but proper that “they are properly informed of all matters relevant to these cases and allowed access to all pertinent documents.”

He referred to the “information” as “any data or material in any form, including records, documents, memoranda, opinions, advisories, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, pleadings and papers, as well as data material held in any electronic form.”

Thus, De los Reyes said, memorandum circulars issued before such as MC 10, series of 2007, MC No. 4, series of 2004, MC No. 25, series of 1995, and other administrative issuances inconsistent with this MC No. 7 “are hereby modified and amended accordingly.”

In Congress, a bill pertaining to this matter is still awaiting deliberation with no hint as to when it would be revived.

De los Reyes has observed “in not a few cases” that keeping the farmers in the dark about developments on their cases led to their “undue dislocation” or ejectment from their lands because “they were unable to intervene precisely on account of such lack of information/documents.”

The DAR chief cautioned, however, that the right to information is not absolute. He cited among others the following documents wherein access to them may be denied:

• Privilege information as protected by law or by the Rules of Court;

• Personal information of any individual;

• Drafts of decision, resolution or orders prepared by any DAR Adjudication Board (Darab) member, DAR adjudicator, lawyer, legal officer or Center for Land Use Policy Planning and Implementation (CLUPPI) Committee, in any cases pending before the DAR and Darab;

• Contents of an investigation or ocular inspection report and the name of the investigator or DAR personnel preparing the same prior to its submission to the proper DAR office;

• Identity of the person or persons conducting the investigation or ocular inspections as well as the factual findings thereof prior to the issuance and release of the report thereon;

• Internal inter-office memoranda/legal opinions and confidential reports provided that they are clearly marked and identified by the DAR office generating the same or having custody thereof as privileged or confidential; and

• Information which, in the determination of the DAR, will create clear and present danger to the person, liberty or security of the leaseholders, agrarian reform beneficiaries, landowners, or DAR employees concerned, or to national sovereignty. —