By Claro A. Lanipa
PAGADIAN CITY – The Department of
Agrarian Reform (DAR) Zamboanga del Sur has lined up month-long activities to
commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Program (CARP) and the 4th anniversary of the CARP Extension
with Reforms (CARPER) with the theme, “Security of Land Tenure, Justice for the
Farmers.”
Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer II Arturo Soria reported
in a press conference that under the land tenure improvement, which is one of
the major component programs of the department, some 64,448.5025 hectares out
of the total target of 68, 077.0000 hectares of private agricultural lands
covered under CARP have already been distributed to the identified
beneficiaries as of December 31, 2012.
He said the remaining balance of 3,628.4980 hectares
will be completed by 2014, benefitting 45,618 agrarian reform beneficiaries
(ARBs).
Under the cumulative land acquisition and distribution
(LAD), Soria reported that as of December 31, 2012 a total of 64,448.5025
hectares were accomplished based on the following scheme: operation land
transfer (OLT) with 6,149.9724 hectares; volunteer offer to sell (VOS) 904.6402
hectares; government financing institution (GFI) 5,910.4066 hectares;
government own lands (GOL) 4,861.8936 hectares, compulsory acquisition (CA)
412.8801 hectares; and voluntary land transfer (VLT) with 64,448.5025 hectares.
“This year DAR will cover landholdings of five hectares
and above,” Soria added.
He also disclosed that Zamboanga del Sur is a recipient
of 58 sub-projects under the Agrarian Reform Community Project II (ARCP II)
funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB) to be implemented in 22 municipalities.
It covers farm-to-market roads, multi-purpose/tribal centers, health stations,
potable water system and school buildings, among others.
A total of P791,114,493.44 million was allotted for
these projects with ARCP-II share of P313,380,979.08 and P435,002.791.27 as LGU
equity or counterpart.
To date, DAR-Zamboanga del Sur has established 44
agrarian reform communities (ARCs), five special ARCs and three ARC clusters. (PIA9)