Panelo extols DAR: Job well done
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo praised the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) under the leadership of Secretary John Castriciones for distributing late last year more than 71,000 hectares of agricultural land to 40 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB) in Manapla town, Negros Occidental.
During his online program, “Counterpoint,” Panelo cited the latest achievement by the DAR, as reported by Castriciones, as his way to silence critics who continue to question or claim that the government under the leadership of President Rodrigo Duterte has not done anything to help uplift the lives of Filipinos in his more than four-years in office.
He said contrary to claims made by those highly critical of the administration, including those coming from the opposition, Duterte especially the departments under him, has done many things to ensure that our countrymen will have a better life today and in the future.
The Chief Presidential Legal Counsel said that based on the report of Castriciones, the department distributed 71.8991 hectares of agricultural land to the ARB to empower the qualified landless farmers in the area.
The landholding situated in Barangay San Pablo in the northern Negros Occidental is formerly owned by one Rosario Coscoluela.
Panelo said the farmer-recipients would also receive support services from DAR such as farm inputs, farm machinery, and training, among others, to ensure that their farms would become more productive.
The program is being implemented under the land acquisition and distribution (LAD) component of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer Ma. Victoria Delgado, who led the distribution of land, previously explained that through LAD processes, public and private agricultural landholdings are acquired by the government to be distributed to tenants, farmers, farmworkers, and other tillers who are qualified to become ARB.
“They will eventually receive certificate of land ownership award covering one hectare to a maximum of three hectares for each beneficiary,” Delgado said.