Installation of farmers assured
April 25, 2008

            Agrarian Reform regional director Rodolfo Inson assured land reform beneficiaries that if there are no legal impediments, he can act immediately on petitions for their inclusions, exclusions, individual surveys and installation.

            Inson made the assurance at a dialog with the farmers under the Negros Oriental Center for People Empowerment and Development in Bais City yesterday.

            Various issues and concerns were resolved at the dialog that was attended by Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Grace Fua, Lynellete Barrameda, chief of the survey division in the region, CARP operations officer Tessie Corpuz, and municipal agrarian reform officers from the towns of Pamplona and Tanjay.

            Lawyers from the Dr. Jovito Salonga Center for Law and Development of Silliman University headed by Norberto Denura are assisting provincial agrarian reform chief legal counsel, Louie Naranjo, in fast-tracking the resolution of the cases.

            Denura’s group has offered their services for free to NOCPED-assisted ARBs.

            In most of the problematic CARP areas in Negros Oriental, the common problems are the filing of inclusion and exclusion proceedings, using of dummies by land owners, overlapping surveys, use of threats and intimidation by armed blue guards of CARP-covered haciendas, and even conflicts between ARBs themselves, the DAR noted.

            Inson has set timetables for survey and subdivision requests of ARBs including the installation of farmers with certificate of land ownership awards.  He said his office wants to distribute 10,000 hectares of land throughout the region soon. He however, stressed that the DAR is not just distributing land, as it also wants to see to it that farmers are capable of  sustained production. (By Juancho Gallarde, Visayan Daily Star)