BACOLOD City – An initial 4,000 to 7,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in southern Negros Occidental affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic are expected to receive aid packages containing supplemental food and hygiene products from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) starting this week.
As of May 20, personnel of DAR Negros Occidental II-South have been preparing for the distribution of the packs.
Arnulfo Figueroa, officer-in-charge Provincial Agrarian Reform program officer, said the assistance to be provided is implemented through project “Passover: Arbold Move to Heal as One Deliverance of our ARBs from the COVID-19 Pandemic,”
The program is being initiated by DAR secretary John Castriciones in response to Republic Act 11469, or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.
The agency’s P300 million funding for the activity was sourced from the reprogrammed and realigned budget of the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development Sustainability Program and the unobligated allotment from the different units of DAR’s Support Services Office.
Provincial Agrarian Reform Program officer Enrique Paderes, for his part, said they have created a team that would focus on the implementation of the project starting from the planning stage until the post-project monitoring and evaluation.
Aside from the relief goods, seedlings, fertilizers, pesticides, and farms tools will also be given to the ARB organizations, he added.
The DAR will also aid women ARBs through livelihood activities like egg and poultry production and hog fattening, among others.
Earlier this month, DAR Negros Occidental II-South distributed land titles and installed 67 farmers in two areas.
On May 12, a total of 57 ARBs in Barangay Abuanan, Bago City were installed on a 32.39-hectare property, while some 10 farmer-beneficiaries in Barangay Robles, La Castellana received their land titles to a 5.5658-hectare property on May 5.(With a report from PNA/PN)
