Members of Task Force Mapalad in Negros Occidental celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program yesterday by displaying squashes in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform compound in Bacolod City to express dismay on the slow-phased distribution of lands for farmers.

Alberto Jayme, TFM president, who led about 1,000 members in marching down the main streets of Bacolod yesterday, said the squashes are for President Benigno Aquino III because CARP was a failure under his administration.

Jayme said Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes had scaled down his targets in Negros Island, where there is a total backlog of 135,000 hectares to be distributed before CARP ends in 2014, Jayme claimed.

Since January to June 30, 2010 alone 1,876 hectares were distributed to farmers and the following year, 1,151 hectares were also given, records from DAR showed, he said, adding that DAR assigned two regional directors and several provincial and municipal officers in Negros Occidental in 2012, supposedly to hasten the distribution process of agricultural lands but it is not working. In fact, he said, in the first quarter of this year, DAR only distributed about 750 hectares to farmers in the province.

Based on DAR’s new schedule, 160,000 hectares will be distributed this year, 230, 707 hectares next year, 180, 707 hectares in 2015 and 112, 767 hectares from January to June of 2016, Jayme claimed.

DAR Region 6 Director Alexis Arsenal admitted that CARP has a lot of technical problems from defective titles to additional requirements for agrarian reform beneficiaries annually.

However, DAR, especially in Region 6 is doing everything it can to fast-track the distribution because they do not want to delay it, Arsenal said.

He added that they are not only distributing small parcels of land but all the lands covered under CARP.

Arsenal said the distribution of lands to the ARBs is not simple, as most of these are private agricultural lands

The protest was capped with a dialog between the members of TFM and DAR.*APN

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