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Friday, March 29, 2024

DAR to review leases on 165-ha. Nueva Ecija estate

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The Department of Agrarian Reform wants a review of all the lease contracts within a 165-hectare property in Neva Ecija donated by the late Fr. Gregorio Crisostomo to the government for redistribution to landless farmers in the province.

Agrarian Secretary Conrado Estrella III has tasked Undersecretary for Finance Management and Administration Jeffrey Galan to look into the commercial, residential and agricultural lease contracts at the Padre Crisostomo Estate to immediately fully resolve the issues and concerns related to the existing lease contracts involving the landholding.

He created Task Force Crisostomo Estate and directed it to formulate and recommend new guidelines on the lease of lots within the property, determine the reasonable rates of lease rentals, submit an inventory of actual occupants, and identify the area being occupied by lessees or occupants.

The estate consisted of 110 hectares of rice field in Sta. Rosa town, and seven separate residential and commercial landholdings in Cabanatuan City with a total area of 55 hectares.

Based on a 2021 DAR inventory, there were 2,218 individuals occupying the property, and that 58 of them are tilling the lot in Santa Rosa town, while the rest were occupants of residential homes and commercial establishments in Cabanatuan City.

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The DAR chief has also designated Assistant Secretary for Legal Affairs Celestina Tam as the co-chairperson of the task force due to her familiarity with the matter when she was then the agency’s Central Luzon director.

DAR revived its claim as property custodian in early 2021.

Over the past years, it complied with the old and unadjusted rentalfee of P25 per square meter for a commercial area and P10/sqm. for residential areas.

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