Next DAR chief not hot over amendments

The incoming Agrarian reform chief is not considering any amendments to the current agrarian reforms law, saying that the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) must instead study whether to “condone” the unpaid amortization fees by the farmers to expedite the provision of Land Tenure security.

“Right now, I cannot say whether we need a new agrarian reform law but there is something that we are certain, we have to determine whether we can just condone these amortization fees that were not paid by the farmers,” Conrado Estrella III said in a television interview on Thursday night.

“And with the government just paying the landowners instead because we have to do some pencil-pushing as I said earlier whether it will be costlier for the government to go back to really make an accounting.”

The former Abono partylist group representative aims to identify the original land owners and update the payment of land amortization records to actualize equitable land distribution.

“When I take over, I will see to it that we will be able to identify the original owners, who sold their lots. Cases are varied because others have been mortgaged,” he noted.

Estrella said he will work closely with the provincial agrarian officers for accounting and updating the amortization table.

He will also be working in coordination with the previous DAR chiefs, he noted. He will replace DAR Secretary Bernie Cruz.

“Those who know the amortization payments have already retired or passed away. That’s why the moment we take over even as early as now, I’m already talking to some past secretaries of DAR, they will help me, I am very grateful to them. We will do some pencil-pushing,” he said.