The Department of Agrarian Reform will distribute 80 hectares of government-owned lands, including portions of the Yulo estate in Coron, Palawan, to 102 farmer-beneficiaries in Busuanga.
Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones said the agency would provide free agrarian legal counsel, orientation on organizing support services and conduct Serbisyong DAR-to-Door activities between Jan. 21 and Jan. 22.
The activity dubbed “Pag-anDAR sa BPR: Serbisyong may Puso, Aarangkada sa Pag- asenso ang mga Busuangeño” is a two-day event implementing DAR’s mandate of land tenure improvement, provision of necessary support services, and provision of legal services to ARBs, small-holder farmers, and other farmworkers.
The DAR chief said the lands to be distributed are government-owned lands, including the Busuanga Pasture Reserve or the Yulo King Ranch, to be put into good use to benefit the farmer-beneficiaries.
“For many years, our farmers in this town are asking for the distribution of these lands. BPR is a good case in point, as it is a huge agricultural land that was placed under the management of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Forest Management Bureau,” he said.
With President Rodrigo Duterte’s signing into law of Executive Order No. 75 of 2019, on Feb. 1, 2019, the DAR “has quickly facilitated the process of subjecting this land under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program,” he added.
Assigning DAR as the lead agency, which provides central direction and coordination for the implementation of the said executive order, manifests the government’s desire to provide the landless farmers with their own lands to till, Castriciones said.
“Our activity anchors with the state policy of promoting land reform towards a sound agricultural development, promoting agro-industrialization, and peace and order in the countryside,” he added.
The free agrarian legal counsel would be handled by the top caliber lawyers of the DAR to help Busuanga farmers with their agrarian legal issues, while the orientation on ARB- organizing support services would be conducted by the department’s Program Beneficiaries Development Division.
The Serbisyong DAR-to Door activity is one of the major highlights of the two-day activity, where identified CARP beneficiaries would personally receive their land titles from Castriciones directly on their farmlands “or right at the doorsteps of their homes.”