SOLANO, Nueva Vizcaya – Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Brother John R. Castriciones has expanded the coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) to include retirees of the agency “for as long as they are graduates of any agriculture-related courses.”
Brother John announced this, January 18, 2021, during the distribution of individual Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs), covering 111.29 hectares of farmland, to 88 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in Barangay Baretbet, Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya.
“This is our way of expressing our gratitude to our retirees for the services they rendered and for sharing their expertise to the Department,” Bro. John said.
Bro. John explained that the move is intended to preserve the agricultural lands for the country’s food security program as “it gives our soon-to-be retiring DAR officials and staff new avenues to practice their know-how for food production.”
He said that the move is based on the presumption that “he who takes agricultural courses will embrace farming with all their heart.”
Earlier, the DAR chief also made a similar encouraging announcement when he declared that fresh graduates of any agricultural courses are eligible to avail themselves of at least three hectares of farmlots to serve as farm laboratories on which they could apply the theories and best practices that they learned from their schooling.
Bro. John said the three-hectare to be awarded to CARP beneficiaries applies to all, be they landless farmers, agricultural courses graduates, or DAR retirees, who are themselves graduates of agricultural courses.
The DAR Secretary is resorting to this move after receiving alleged mind-boggling reports that some farmer-beneficiaries are either selling or pawning farmlots awarded to them under the government’s land reform program.
The said reports prompted Bro. John to launch the “Kumustasaka at ARBisitahan” program last January 17, 2021 in Nueva Vizcaya to determine the true state of the country’s land reform program.
The new program seeks to find out who the existing owners of land reform-covered farmlots, the crops planted on them, and the kinds of support services that are needed to enhance farm productivity.
DAR Undersecretary for Support Services Emily Padilla said the Kumustasaka and ARBisitahan program aims to pinpoint the actual farmer-beneficiaries and ensure that all assistance being provided by the DAR would not fall on the wrong hands.
Padilla said she had observed in past distribution of relief goods and farm inputs under the “PaSSOver ARBold Move for Deliverance of ARBs from Covid 19” that “some recipients are not actually farmer-beneficiaries.”
Undersecretary for Planning, Policy and Research Virginia Orogo said the activities would be of great help for the DAR to figure out how far the government’s land reform program has gone after 48 years of implementation.
Orogo said that it’s about time that the DAR comes up with a complete profile of each agrarian reform beneficiary to see the rate of progress of the program.-30-
