General Santos City—President Rodrigo R. Duterte has vowed to distribute more government-owned lands to the people through the expanded agrarian reform program.
Speaking before agrarian reform beneficiaries at the city gymnasium here Thursday, the President said he has directed the Department of Agrarian Reform to survey all available public lands and “give them to the people.”
He said DAR, under Secretary John Castriciones, already processed and distributed about 700,000 hectares of lands under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms, benefiting more than 300,000 farmers.
“My order was for all government-owned lands to be given to you. As long as the land is government-owned, it shall be given away,” the President said.
“Everywhere all throughout the Philippines, we are giving away land titles to you,” he said.
Duterte was here to personally hand over land titles covering some 24,000 hectares of public lands in Region 12 (Soccsksargen), the biggest so far under the program, according to DAR officials.