AGRARIAN REFORM | Marcos wants faster distribution of land titles to farmer beneficiaries

January 11, 2023 , 12:56 PM

By Beatrice Puente

(January 11, 2023) – President Bongbong Marcos Jr. on Tuesday ordered the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to speed up the distribution of land ownership titles to the beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program of the government.

Marcos raised this concern after the DAR presented its report in a meeting with Cabinet officials at Malacañang, according to the Presidential Communications Office (PCO).

“The chief executive further vowed to provide the much-needed support to help agrarian reform beneficiaries improve their living conditions,” said the PCO in a news release.

As of December, the DAR said it aims to subdivide 34,500 collective certificates of land ownership awards (CLOAs) that cover 345,089 hectares of land. After this process, the DAR will issue 134,000 individual titles.

The DAR also urged senators to approve the counterpart measure of House Bill (HB) 6336 or the New Agrarian Emancipation Act. Under this proposal, the unpaid amortizations and interests incurred over the years will be condoned to ease the burden of farmer beneficiaries.

“All private agricultural lands covered under the CARP (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program) or any other agrarian reform program or laws that have not been distributed at the time of the effectivity of this act shall be distributed at no cost to the qualified beneficiaries,” read HB 6336.

In his first State of the Nation Address last July, Marcos vowed to continue the government’s agrarian reform program, emphasizing the need to bolster support services and distribution. He noted that the condonation of loans pegged at P58.125 billion will benefit around 654,000 farmers.

“A moratorium will give the farmers the ability to channel their resources in developing their farms, maximizing their resources in developing their farms, maximizing their capacity to produce, and propel the growth of our economy,” said Marcos.

Marcos’ late dictator father introduced land reform as the “cornerstone of the New Society,” according to a report by the New York Times in 1975. But this only paved the way for patronage and corruption, with the elder Marcos favoring landowners over farmers.

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) noted that the latest developments are long overdue, vowing to “ensure that this translates on the ground.” The KMP also sought the implementation of a new agrarian reform law that will cover “new private agricultural land for distribution.”

Last July, lawmakers from the Makabayan bloc refiled the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) that “answers the demand of Filipino farmers for free land distribution and social justice,” rectifying the defects of earlier programs.

“We have been filing and lobbying for GARB as landmark legislation that seeks to address the root causes of the social strife arising from landlessness and rural poverty,” said KMP chairperson emeritus Rafael Mariano, also a former DAR secretary, in a statement last July.

DAR secretary Conrado Estrella III promised to help farmers and “bring the government closer to the people.”

(PM)

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