The provincial office of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Negros Oriental is on track with its target distribution of land to farmer beneficiaries under the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Stephen Leonidas on Thursday disclosed that this year, they have set their target at 2,069 hectares of land to be distributed, in close coordination with the Land Bank of the Philippines as these are compensable private and agricultural lands.
Since the start of the land reform program during the Marcos regime under Presidential Decree No. 27, an estimated 80 percent of the total target of 100,000 hectares of land for CARP distribution has been reached, Leonidas disclosed.
A balance of 16,000 hectares has yet to be accomplished with the deadline for a 100 percent distribution set for June 2014, he added.
However, according to PARO Leonidas, 50 percent of the lands that remain to be covered under CARP for distribution to qualified beneficiaries are “problematic”, meaning these are either untitled, with dilapidated titles, and with landowners already deceased and their heirs difficult to locate.
But, Leonidas expressed optimism that the provincial DAR office will be able to achieve its target goal by June 2014 despite the current problems they are facing, more particularly with lands covered by CARP but whose owners are still refusing to let go. (PNA)
