DAR aims to complete land reform program

MANILA – Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes has said his agency is keen on completing its mandate of granting land titles to poor farmers by 2013.
“By that time, we would have covered one million hectares of arable land. We hope there will be happy farmers,” Delos Reyes said during a forum in Quezon City.
Delos Reyes also said that at least 60,000 hectares of agricultural lands in Eastern Visayas have been tagged for distribution to beneficiaries of land reform in the region in 2012.

He said the 60,461 hectares of land targeted for distribution in the region represent 22 percent of the total target of 488,903 hectares for Eastern Visayas under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
The areas targeted for land reform are in Leyte (42,989 hectares), Northern Samar (10,281), Samar (3,855), Eastern Samar (1,841), Southern Leyte (1,421) and Biliran (74).
Since the program was started under the late President Corazon C. Aquino in 1988, at least 428,442 hectares of land have been distributed in the region, benefiting 153,015 farmers, Delos Reyes said.