Palace to consult with DAR secretary on workers’ fate after 2014

Malacañang will consult with Department of Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes on what to do with the DAR’s employees once the government finishes distributing agricultural lands to qualified beneficiaries by June 2014. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said there is no information at this time on whether the DAR employees will be terminated or separated once the department becomes irrelevant. “We will consult with Secretary delos Reyes on this. We have not gotten any information to the effect there will be termination or separation,” she said on government-run dzRB radio. The fate of DAR employees was put into question after Malacañang ordered last Thursday the full implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) by June 2014. President Benigno Aquino III met with farmer-members of Task Force Mapalad who urged him to speed up the distribution of CARP-covered lands to them. “Between now and June 2014, all agricultural lands shall be covered and distributed to qualified beneficiaries. Priority shall be given to landholdings 25 hectares and above and notices of coverage would be issued on or before December 2012,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda had said last June. — LBG, GMA News