THE Department of Agrarian Reform remains committed to distributing agricultural lands covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) until the end of President Aquino’s term in 2016, a senior official of the agency said.
Agrarian Reform Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Anthony Parungao said the DAR is now gearing up for the two-year extension of the program’s land-distribution component which will allow the agency to issue notices of coverages to 3,398 landholdings.
As of June 30, 2014, the DAR had issued notices of coverage (NOCs) to 28,085 landholdings covering 231,309 hectares, thus leaving the DAR’s NOC balance down to just 29,935 hectares, or 3,398 landholdings, which is much lower than what the DAR expects.
These are mostly small landholdings, Parungao said—composed of 77 percent of the total number and 44 percent of the total area— mostly coconut and sugarlands, and mostly in Western Visayas (11,000 hectares), Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (7,000) and Eastern Visayas (3,900).
Parungao, however, clarified that even if CARP’s land-distribution component expired on June 30 this year, the DAR will continue the distribution of lands already covered by the program. A target land is already covered by the program once an NOC has been served or issued by the DAR.
“As repeatedly explained by the DAR, only its authority [to issue NOCs] had lapsed. Under Section 30 of the CARPer [Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms] law, any and all pending cases or land acquisition and distribution proceedings or both are expressly allowed to continue until completed,” he said.
Parungao nevertheless lauded the Senate’s passing on third reading Senate Bill (SB) 2278 last month saying it will allow the DAR to issue NOCs and cover more lands once it is enacted.
“We are, of course, extremely grateful to the Senate for passing on third reading SB 2278, without any negative vote whatsoever, extending the authority of the DAR to issue NOC to the remaining agricultural landholdings in the country for a period of two years.”
He added that the enactment into law of the proposed measure “is something to look forward to with President Aquino having certified the bill as urgent.”
The passage into third reading of SB 2278 last month was slammed by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP). The group said the move is a “desperate resurrection of the already-dead CARP.”
In a statement, KMP Chairman Rafael Mariano said the Senate move is “legally, morally and politically questionable since the CARP already expired on June 30, 2014.”