DAR to miss land distribution target this year

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said it would miss its target of distributing 200,000 hectares of land to farmers this year.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Gil delos Reyes said the DAR is expected to hand over a total of 130,000 to 140,000 hectares of land to tillers by December 2011. “The balance of 60,000, we hope to distribute by March 2012,” Delos Reyes said.

According to him, the DAR would not be able to hit its target this year because of administrative delays and changes in the law that delayed the budget and distribution procedures for 2011.

For 2012, Delos Reyes said the DAR planned to distribute 240,000 hectares to farmers using their allocated budget of P18 billion.

Delos Reyes said the DAR hoped to hasten the distribution program next year with the use of information technology. DAR’s legal department yesterday launched a website which contains 12,000 issuances, memorandum orders and circulars.

“This is our way of keeping with the President’s mandate of openness and transparency in our service to the people,” Delos Reyes said.

Nongovernment organizations and farmers’ groups have hit the DAR for its slow distribution of land under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, which was instituted by President Aquino’s late mother, former President Corazon Aquino.

“Studies show that successive governments since (the Edsa People Power Revolution) have not done well in implementing the four asset reform programs (agrarian reform, urban land reform and housing, ancestral domain reform and fisheries reform) for lack of adequate funding and of political will,” said the Manifesto for Agrarian Reform signed recently by church groups, NGOs, and other stakeholders. Kristine L. Alave