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Thursday, August 2, 2012

DAR celebrates 3rd CARPER anniversary

by Claro A. Lanipa

PAGADIAN CITY 02 Aug (PIA) – The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) celebrated its 3rd Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER) as per Republic Act 9700 of  2009, better known as the CARPER law. This law contains an extension of the budget for CARP especially the Land Acquisition and Distribution (LSAD) program for five years from July 1, 2009.

Zamboanga del Sur DAR Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Engr. Raymundo Bernardo in a press conference held recently at his office said, the law clearly states that the support services  will still be provided to the CARP beneficiaries.

Nationwide, we still a balance of almost a million hectares of private agricultural lands which requires the necessary reforms to complete the acquisition and distribution to landless farmers, he said.

In Zamboanga del Sur, Bernardo disclosed, there are a total of 65,382 hectares mostly private agricultural lands of different types of acquisition to include non-private agricultural lands or government own lands turned over to us for distribution under CARP.

CARP started in 1988 as per  RA-6657, this was actually a 10-year program implemented by DAR based on the  mandate of the Philippines Constitution. This was extended for another 10 years from 1998-2008, to distribute the balances, mostly private agricultural lands. There were even  pressures from the Civil Society Organizations (CSO) that there are some imbalances in the distribution mostly of which are contentious and problematic lands we need to locate within the five year, Bernardo said.

He said, during the recent State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Benigno Aquino III, he was emphatic that   all lands under Phase 3-A should be issued with the notice of coverage up to December 2012. This means that all lands 10 hectares and above are covered with this phase and the issuance of notice has started July, this year.

As stated also by President Aquino, we will also be covering 5 hectares and below 10 hectares by next year under Phase 3-B. The issuance of notices will commence on July 1, 2013, Bernardo added.

Meanwhile Engr. Josephine Sisican, chief Beneficiaries Development and Coordination Division reported, that as of July 2012 a total of P363.144 Million ARCP II projects have been approved. These projects are  rehabilitation/ improvement of Farm to Market Roads (FMR), Barangay Health Stations, road repair and construction, warehouses and solar dryers distributed in 17 municipalities in the province.

ARCP II is being funded by Asean Development Bank (ADB) with counterpart from the local government units (LGUs.)

PARO Bernardo added, that once we give the beneficiaries a piece of land through the CARP more services will come in. DAR alone can’t do this, “we   always work with our project partners which is the LGUs, the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs), as well as the NGOs and CSOs operating in the province,” Bernardo emphasized. We are very lucky because there are still active NGO’s who are supporting our program, he said.

He further said, DAR focuses more on the natural practice system as well as the organic farming system. The trending today, is to do away with the use of in-organic, which usually used chemicals and pesticides. “We always adopt programs implemented or pushed by the Department of Agriculture (DA) through the Integrated Pest Management and other systems,” said Bernardo. (CAL/PIA9).