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The Chairperson and Sectoral Representatives of the Provincial
Agrarian Reform Coordinating Committee
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SORSOGON
CITY, Nov 16 (PIA) –
124 landholdings equivalent to 993 hectares located in the municipalities of
Bulan and Pilar were recommended for removal from the Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Program Extension with Reform Land Acquisition and Distribution (CARPER
LAD) Balance of Sorsogon.
The removal of said problematic
landholdings was recommended through a resolution by the Provincial Agrarian
Reform Coordinating Committee (PARCCOM) in Sorsogon to Presidential Agrarian
Reform Council (PARC).
PAR Officer Roseller R. Olayres,
who chairs the Provincial Task Force on Problematic Landholdings in Sorsogon
said that above 18 percent of the 124 landholdings are situated in slopes, are
cogonal and not suited to agriculture.
“The landholdings are also
recommended for removal because they fall under landowner’s retention on
co-owners with eroded portion, have duplicated Operation Land Transfer (OLT)
with registered Emancipation Patent (EP), are under actual cultivation by the
landowner’s children, and within unclassified public forest,” said Olayres.
Aside from said reasons, there
are also landholdings whose landowners died prior to CARP. Also, some of the
landholdings were already converted to fishpond and nipa plantation, others
were reacquired/redeemed by landowner from mortgagee, while some others are with
free patent title in the name of a particular person registered after the implementation
of CARP on October 24, 1998.
Some other landholdings are now
used as barangay hall, chapel, and school site, while there are those already
subdivided into several lots and being occupied by its new owners/buyers.
Olayres further said that aside from
these lands in Bulan and Pilar towns, another 121 landholdings are being
recommended by the Municipal Agrarian Reform Officers (MAROs) in Castilla,
Gubat Cluster, and Magallanes to be also deductible from the CARPER LAD balance
for the same reasons.
As per MC No.8, series of 2010,
the PARCCOM is tasked to deliberate and issue resolution for exclusion of
landholdings found to be deductible for CARPER LAD Balance. If however, there
are tenants in the subject landholdings, it will be subjected to a leasehold
contract to be worked out by the MAROs and Legal Officers.
While the Department of Agrarian
Reform (DAR) is busy completing the CARPER LAD Balance, the PARCCOM’s
Provincial Sectoral Representatives (PSR) of farmers, landowners, NGOs,
People’s Organizations, Indigenous People, and Agricultural Cooperatives
continue their monitoring activity and assistance to other CARP related
matters.
Some of the projects they are
currently monitoring are the agri-cash project of Saint Anne Family Service
Cooperative (SAFSCO), Gabao Samahang Nayon Multi-purpose Development
Cooperative (GASANAMUDECO) and the construction of permanent river control all
in Irosin town; the Farm-to-Market Road (FMR) project in Hidhid, Matnog; the
15-M worth construction of irrigation open canal in Pulog, Balete, Bacon in
Sorsogon City.
Other activities that the PSRs
conducted include attendance to the consultative meeting of Local Coconut
Industry Development Council in Magallanes town where they oriented the council
on how to holster the economic enhancement of ARC cooperative specifically on
developing a coconut sugar industry cottage.
Still more livelihood seminars
have been attended by PSRs which in turn will also be introduced to farmer-families
as part of their yearning to uplift their living condition. Furthermore, they
are also monitoring and assisting some legal cases that involve farmers, such
as ejection and harassment cases.
Meanwhile, aside from completing
the CARPER LAD Balance, DAR is also focused on the implementation of the three
major program of CARP: the Land Tenure and Improvement (LTI), the Program
Beneficiaries Development (PBD), and the Agrarian Justice Delivery (AJD),
PARCCOM monitors all the above-mentioned activities in Sorsogon. (BARecebido,
PIA Sorsogon/AJA-DAR)