Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes yesterday turned over certificates of land ownership awards to 100 farmer-beneficiaries from three areas in southern Negros at Brgy. Carabalan, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental.

The farmer beneficiaries are from Kabankalan City, Himamaylan City, and Binalbagan whose land areas totaled 97.1636 hectares, agrarian reform records show.

Florentino Siladan, Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer, said DAR will also turn over CLOAs to 33 ARBs of La Castellana City and Moises Padilla with a total land area of 28.5420 has. today, while 69 ARBs of Bago City and Pontevedra will receive their CLOAs on July 25 with 74.8394 has.

De los Reyes said the “One-Stop Shop Caravan” information campaign on the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program extension with reforms is a new approach of the Department of Agrarian Reform to speed up the land acquisition and distribution in the province.

He also admitted that DAR-Negros lacks personnel so they do backroom operations where personnel from other provinces and support staff from the central office help in areas with big balances, like processing of questionnaires and land titles.

DAR has also outsourced the land survey for a speedy development, he added.

“Though it took us sometime to get the systems going since this has never been done before, where different provinces and offices of DAR assist other provinces with big balances, we are augmenting the system,” de los Reyes said.

He also said that Negros Occidental has the biggest balance of LAD but that does not mean that the province has the largest land area.

De los Reyes also said that President Benigno Aquino III has approved the P300 million credit loan programs for ARBs in the country, and this assures that farmers can access funds and the equipment program that will be channeled through the Department of Agriculture and DAR easily.

DAR SOUTH

With about 12,000 has. of land targeted for 2012 for DAR Negros-South, about 1,000 has. were distributed to ARBs as of last month, Siladan said yesterday.

Siladan said they are trying their best to finish distribution and acquisition before the year ends, though they still encounter problems in the availability of documents, original land titles, lot data computation still take place.

DAR is will also start the pipelining of the 9,000 has. of land that are up for coverage and distribution by 2013 where the biggest land holdings are in Bago, Pontevedra, Isabela, and Himamaylan, he said.

Pipelining, which will start three months from now, is the process where they start the pre-listing and pre-identification of beneficiaries for easier process when they need to take full action by next year, he added.

Siladan also assured ARBs that the pipelining will not affect their operation in LAD. *LTG

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