DAR needs to distribute 961,974 hectares in 2 years
By Kristine L. Alave, Philippine Daily Inquirer
June 16, 2012

At least 900,000 hectares of private landholdings are slated for acquisition and distribution in the last two years of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said in a report.

The report by DAR Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes said that the DAR would focus on acquiring and distributing 961,974 hectares of land from 107,639 landholdings, most of these are private agricultural land.

Plagued by challenges

The report also identified several challenges that have plagued the acquisition and distribution process, among them coming up with the amount needed to buy the mostly private estates through compulsory acquisition, the lack of surveyors, the tedious verification process, uncooperative officials in agencies like the Land Registration Authority (LRA), as well as ironing out technical issues with landowners, some of whom have bucked the agrarian reform program by resorting to the stock distribution option (SDO).

“It’s easy to distribute land that is yours. But the government would have to pay for these lands,” De los Reyes said in an interview on Friday, referring to the 93.58 percent or 900,188 hectares of private agricultural land covered by CARP.

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