DAR: 229K hectares of land distributed to farmers so far

Department of Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones on Saturday reported that around 229,000 hectares of land have been distributed to farmers under the government's program.

Interviewed at the Laging Handa public briefing, DAR's  Castriciones said the distributed parcels included newly-acquired lands, redocumented lands or collective Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs), and lands turned over to the Land Bank.

DAR is also currently parcelizing 1.3 million hectares of land of collective CLOAs under the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project, Castriciones said.

Castriciones added that DAR is aiming to distribute around 220,000 hectares of idle government-owned lands to farmers.

He said there are around 420,000 hectares of land in the universal balance yet to be distributed, although most of them are already "problematic" after the end of the notice of coverage in 2014.

Further, the government is aiming to grant to farmers by September the Building Adequate, Livable, Affordable, and Inclusive (BALAI) houses being constructed in Pangasinan, with the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development allocating around P2 billion for the site development plan.

Castriciones said about 159 municipalities have applied for the BALAI housing.

However, they are only targeting 20% of the three million agrarian reform beneficiaries with the term of President Rodrigo Duterte expected to end in 2022.

Washington-based multilateral lender World Bank last year approved the $370-million loan for DAR’s land parcelization and individual land titling initiative for the beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). —LBG, GMA News