TACLOBAN CITY, July 9 (PNA) -– Land acquisition and distribution (LAD) by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) continues in Eastern Visayas, according to regional director, Atty. Shiela B. Enciso.
Atty. Enciso said that LAD ended together with the culmination of Republic Act 9700 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER) last June 30, 2014.
However, there was a provision in the law that can also be found in Republic Act 6657 that all cases filed even if the CARPER Law ends will proceed until resolved.
She said that they treated LAD similar to how cases were handled such that the acquisition and distribution of all CARPable landholdings that were issued notice of coverage by June 30 will also proceed.
She added that updating of data as to landholding issued notices is ongoing and is posted at their web-based data base.
As of July 3 report generated by their operations tool showed that 91 percent of the 5,900 landholdings in Leyte covering some 22,000 hectares have been issued notices.
In Samar, 87 percent of CARPable landholdings were also served notices, 80 percent in Northern Samar, 28 percent in Eastern Samar and 67 percent in Southern Leyte.
The accomplishment may still go up as the updating continues.
Meanwhile, the regional director said that they will wait for a law that may again extend CARP in order to act in areas that were not served notices.
She believed though that only limited landholdings are left to be given their notices of coverage and may fall below five hectares which are already part of landowners retention.
“We prioritized those with big landholdings,” she said. (PNA)
