THE Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Negros Occidental-South will prioritize the inventory of all distributed landholdings and agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in the southern part of the province to align the delivery of targets and deliverables under its three major final outputs (MFOs).
These MFOs include Land Tenure Security Program, Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development and Sustainability Program, and Agrarian Justice Delivery Program.
Officer-In-Charge Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II Arnulfo Figueroa, who spoke at the Strategic Planning in Bacolod City recently, said the inventory of all acquired and distributed landholdings and ARB status will help the agency resolve various issues and concerns in the implementation of Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) amid the threat of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
Some of the concerns include the rampant illegal leasing and selling of Carp-awarded lands, uninstalled ARBs, undistributed Carp-covered landholdings and unorganized ARBs, among others.
"Aside from resolving different issues, the conduct of inventory will help us to expedite the process in terms of implementing the Support for Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (Split) Program for we are mandated by Secretary John Castriciones to subdivide at least 20,000 hectares of lands into individual titles," Figueroa added.
The official further explained DAR-Negros Occidental II wanted to ensure that there must be a fair and equal distribution of support services to ARBs and ARB organizations starting next year.
Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer I Enrique Paderes has lauded the collective efforts of all the employees particularly the Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officers and division heads for accomplishing almost all deliverables and targets this year.
"Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, DAR-Negros Occidental II was able to deliver almost all the indicators under the three MFOs and we even exceeded the expectations," he exclaimed.
Paderes stressed that "we do not want to settle to these. We have to explore other strategies and alternatives to excellently perform and accomplish everything expected from us."
For human resource and administration matters of DAR-Negros Occidental II, Chief Administrative Officer Leony Lamela vowed to support the major activities of the agency by empowering its human resource and strengthening the provision of trainings and interventions.
"We have lots of younger minds in our office and we want to invest or capitalize on these idealistic, innovative, inspired and energetic generations," Lamela said, adding that "we will empower and motivate them to be good public servants for the benefit of the agency as well as of the nation."