DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III said to speed up the distribution of government farmlands.
The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said it is working to speed up the distribution of idle government-owned lands to landless war veterans, their surviving spouses or orphaned children, retired military and police personnel, and graduates of agricultural courses in compliance with the directive from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III said that he had directed all field implementers of the land reform program to begin field validation activities right away and collect the necessary paperwork to determine the areas of government-owned lands that could be distributed to the intended beneficiaries.
In DAR's website, Estrella said there are 24,459 hectares of government-owned lands that are up for field validation, 14,118 hectares of them are targeted for distribution this year under Executive Order (EO) No. 75, series of 2019.
All government agencies are required by the abovementioned presidential order to identify and distribute agricultural lands owned by the government to eligible recipients.
In his State of the Nation Address (SONA), Marcos Jr. vowed to pursue the “distribution of unused government agricultural lands to landless war veterans, their surviving spouses or orphaned children, retired military and police personnel and agricultural courses graduates.”
DAR Undersecretary for Field Operations Atty. Kazel Celeste informed regional and provincial land reform implementers of Estrella's directive in her two-page memorandum to conduct field validation activities immediately and submit their reports at the soonest possible time.
Celeste anticipated that they will provide supporting documents in addition to the validation reports, including copies of the Proclamation or titles, certifications from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) designating the lands as alienable and disposable, certifications from the Department of Agriculture (DA) regarding the suitability of the lands for farming, and the identified areas for coverage, among others.
Celeste told the program implementers to seek military and/or police assistance "in cases where you are denied entry by the government instrumentality," as she made note of the Agrarian Reform's determination to distribute identified government-owned lands to qualified beneficiaries.
Tags: #DAR, #farmlands