PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., just like his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, is a believer in the policy of distributing idle government-owned lands (GOLs) to legal and qualified beneficiaries to give them livelihood and involve more Filipinos in food production.
This is the rationale behind the issuance of Duterte’s Executive Order 75 series of 2019 which mandates the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to make an inventory of idle public lands, including those owned by state colleges and universities (SCUs) for the purpose cited above.
Following this EO, Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III is now accelerating the inventory of GOLs, even as he clarified that the Department will not entertain any moratorium on the distribution of these lands.
‘… our farmers are generally old and getting older, and we should incentivize young farmers to take up agriculture – specially science-based farming — if we are to achieve food security for the nation.’
Estrella reported that the DAR is processing the evaluation of over 56,000 hectares of GOLs nationwide. About 26,000 lands have yet to be validated and targeted for distribution for free to qualified beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
The agrarian reform secretary, however, clarified that they will evaluate and list the “coverable SCUs and identify which areas are being used for agri-research. Only those areas not used for this purpose will be covered for distribution to qualified beneficiaries of the CARP.”
The EO 75 directs all government agencies to identify, validate, segregate, transfer and distribute GOLs suitable for agriculture, no longer used for the purpose which they have been reserved and this will be intended for distribution to qualified beneficiaries. Estrella said that more than 200,000 hectares of government lands are expected to be covered under EO 75. “So far, at least 100,000 government lands are ready for distribution,” he added.
The law (Republic Act 6657) says agricultural lands can be distributed to landless war veterans, landless surviving spouses and orphans of war veterans, and landless retirees of the military and the police. This list later include rebel returnees and surrenderers, and young Filipino graduates of agriculture courses who do not have their own land to till.
This last group of recipients is most important, as our farmers are generally old and getting older, and we should incentivize young farmers to take up agriculture — specially science-based farming — if we are to achieve food security for the nation.
