DAR readies distribution of ‘idle’ public lands to Marawi farmers

THE Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is now gearing up for the distribution of government-owned lands in warravaged Marawi City to qualified farmer-beneficiaries.

This came following a two-day consultative meeting held last March 29 and 30, 2021.

President Duterte ordered the distribution to implement land reform in Marawi City, which prompted the DAR to convene with other concerned government agencies including the Department of National Defense (DND), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform-bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (MAFAR-BARMM), Philippine National Police, the local government of Lanao del Sur, Task Force Bangon Marawi, and Marawi State University, among others.

Through the consultation, the DAR hopes to execute land survey and land reform in the said city wherein four major areas to be subjected under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) are the idle lands in Camp Keithley, Mindanao State University, National Power Corp. and the Provincial Capitol.

“If we are all one here and willing to change the status quo in Marawi, we can come up with one strong unified position. We can prepare a resolution to effectuate change in Marawi and we will cover all lands that can be distributed legally, as in accordance with the law,” DAR Secretary John Castriciones said in a news statement.

Castriciones emphasized that the basis for distributing government-owned lands is Executive Order (EO) 75, Series of 2019, which states that all idle public lands can be subjected to acquisition to be distributed to the beneficiaries.

The department’s Special Concerns Office (SCO), headed by Undersecretary Carim Panumpang, is the lead convener of the consultation meeting.

Panumpang said this activity would result in legitimizing the ownership of Marawi farmers over the lands that they deserve to own a long time ago as part of their rights to their ancestral domain.

“We may have some disagreements in implementing land reform in some concerned areas, so we will bring this up in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao [BARMM] and other proper forum to immediately resolve this,” Panumpang said.

MAFAR-BARMM Minister Mohammad Yacub expressed his gratitude to the government for its support to their agency.

“We are thankful for the support we found in our government. And this became possible because of our President’s ‘pusong-[maka]mamamayan’ and our partnership with the DAR under the leadership of Secretary Castriciones,” Yacub was quoted in the same DAR statement.