DAR Agusan Sur claims milestone feat in 35 years of CARP

SAN FRANCISCO, Agusan del Sur (MindaNews / 02 July) — Officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in this province claimed milestone achievements in the distribution of lands to Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) 35 years after the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was launched in the country. 

Republic Act 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law was passed in 1988, instituting CARP to “promote social justice and industrialization.”

Engr. Loida Jones, Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II, said some 60,904 ARBs had been given an average of three-hectare farm lands each or a total of 182,712 hectares. This is about 20 percent of the 998,952 hectares of Agusan del Sur’s total land area.

Jones noted that since CARP was implemented in the province, several ARB cooperatives have sustainably progressed , based on the assessment of the Cooperative Development Authority.

“We are proud to say that after 35 years, these cooperatives have improved and made the lives of their members better,” Jones said

^{This photo of an employee of the Department of Agrarian Reform provincial office in Agusan del Sur assisting an agrarian reform beneficiary as he signs a document in his ricefield won the photography contest to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the comprehensive agrarian reform program. Photo by Noel P. Marial courtesy of DAR Agusan}

Taking centerstage in CARP implementation are the thousands of former farmworkers of multinational oil palm plantation who were the first ARBs in 1988 to receive Collective Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CCLOA) titles from then president Corazon Aquino in Cagayan de Oro City.

Some 7,000 hectares of the oil palm plantation were covered under CARP as most of the landholdings were forcibly grabbed from farmers through harassment and intimidation by the dreaded “Lost Command” paramilitary group led by the late constabulary colonel Carlos Lademora.

All beneficiaries of the five ARB cooperatives of the defunct National Development Corporation-Guthrie Plantations had been given individual titles through the DAR’s Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project. 

The P24 million SPLIT project was funded through a World Bank loan and counterpart fund from Philippine government, involving some 1.38 million hectares of collective CLOAs in the country.

The SPLIT project staff identified about 3,800 hectares of oil palm plantation CCLOA lands will be covered for individual titling.

Even with a wide coverage of CARP in the province, Jones reported there are still 1,800 hectares left, out of which 1,000 hectares are being processed. 

The 1,000 hectares for CARP coverage is among the 2,300 hectares of lands that will be awarded throughout Caraga on July 7.  Their CLOAs are already covered by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s order imposing a one-year moratorium on payments of P635 per hectare per year to the Land Bank of the Philippines and interests of loans to the same bank.

DAR Secretary Conrado M. Estrella III said the issuance of the EO is in preparation for the passage of a law that would condone the loans of ARBs with unpaid amortization and interest payments.

The President signed Executive Order 4 during his birthday in September last year, imposing a one-year moratorium on land amortization and interest payments of ARBs for agricultural lands distributed under the CARP. 

He said the moratorium would help unburden the ARBs from their debts, enabling them to use the money instead in developing their farms, maximizing their capacity to produce and propelling the growth of the economy. (Chris V. Panganiban / MindaNews)

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