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Friday, June 30, 2006
Agrarian officer agrees to CARP review
By Ma. Ester L. Espina
REACTING to the clamor from various groups calling for a review of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp), Agrarian Reform Regional Director Alexis Arsenal said he will not oppose the move but would even welcome it for reasons of transparency.
"I agree to a review. We also want to be transparent and this will allow us to know how far we have gone and how far do we have to go still in implementing and extending the program," Arsenal said.
Various organizations, including the Provincial Government and the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce Inc. have sought the review of the Carp citing the escalating violence arising from land conflicts as well as lack of support services for agrarian beneficiaries and claims of just compensation among landowners.
Arsenal has been slammed by peasant organizations and admits that he has had his share of cases filed against him on account of Carp but he dismissed this as "mere harassment," adding that this stems from "lack of understanding the Carp guidelines" by both farmers and landowners.
He said while they have conducted information drive on the process of Carp, "they have to understand that there are so many technicalities and if we short-cut the process in order to comply with their demand to hasten, we will also get in trouble because Land Bank will refuse to pay if the papers are not in order."
Arsenal said they have been barraged by complaints particularly from militant peasant groups but added that aside from following the guidelines "there are other agencies involved which is beyond our control and we can't possibly do the implementation as fast as some NGO's would want."
However, he said they are doing everything they can and have requested for additional personnel to fast track some cases in Negros Occidental.
Recently, five survey teams from the central office were augmented bringing the total of surveying teams to 12 in order to hasten the segregation survey DAR is currently undertaking.
"We also requested Land Bank to add more personnel to hasten land valuation," Arsenal said, adding that on top of that, "we have moved more than 10 personnel from the regional office to Negros Occidental."
Arsenal admitted that DAR has given them a "very high expectation" to distribute 22,000 hectares of land to beneficiaries for this year alone but added " we will try to meet the target."
(June 30, 2006 issue)
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