ILOILO City – The municipal officers of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in the Province of Iloilo were told to closely monitor the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) who are recipients of Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). It was ordered by DAR secretary John Castriciones during his recent conference with the Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officers (MARPOs) of DAR – Iloilo.
MARPOs should visit the ARBs, check if they are the one’s tilling their lands and to report to the PARO those that are not in possession for proper action. Cases should be filed to get back those lands and to redistribute the lands to those who are willing, the secretary said.
Likewise, he also directed the MARPOs to monitor the ARB Organizations especially those that are still struggling to facilitate and make available for them the various interventions under the program. He wanted to correct the practice that usually the developed ARBOs are the ones who often get all the interventions and assistance and those who are less developed seldom get one, for he will not allow the situation to continue wherein the rich becomes richer and the poor becomes poorer. Secretary Castriciones is consistent in his pronouncement that the ARBs are the primary concern of the department. Their rights and interests should be protected.
It was underscored by the secretary that MARPOs should work as a team, there should be proper coordination with the Land Bank of the Philippines for the delivery of the Claim Folders, with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for the approval of the survey plans, and the Registry of Deeds (ROD) for the registration of CLOAs. He gives leeway and does not want to interfere with the MARPOs’ creativity and innovativeness in the delivery of their performance, for he believes so much in their capacity. On that note, Assistant Regional Director (ARD) and concurrent OIC – Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer (PARPO) II Ronald Gareza committed to deliver 1thousand hectares to be distributed for CY 2018, 100 percent Claim Folder documentation and zero backlog in the resolution of legal cases. Gareza added that he will re-strategize with the 20 MARPOs the 5 indicators involve in Program Beneficiaries Development (PBD) to ensure that basic support services are provided to the ARBs.
Furthermore, undersecretary for Legal Affairs Office (LAO) Atty. Luis Meinrado Pangulayan, added that MARPOs are the frontliners of program implementation, “no program implementation when there are no MARPOs”. They should also monitor cases of illegal conversion and should give insights about the landholding. The latest administrative order requiring public consultations on land use conversion applications aims to ensure transparency and to solicit public sentiments and provide opportunities for any interested party to present comments and sentiments about the certain land use conversion applications.
Meanwhile, MARPOs were also given the chance to raise important issues and concerns that they commonly encountered in the field. Issues on the payment of Real Property Tax (RPT) by the ARBs to the Local Government Units and the land amortization with the Land Bank of the Philippines. MARPOs were told to closely coordinate with the agencies concerned in order to thresh out issues and to facilitate factors that affect the rights and interests of the ARBs./PN
