President Marcos is scheduled to formally endorse the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) for the New Agrarian Emancipation Act, also known as Republic Act 11953, on September 12th, a day preceding his 66th birthday.
In a thoughtful gesture, Conrado Estrella III, the Secretary of Agrarian Reform, has committed to present the completed IRR of the New Agrarian Emancipation Act as a birthday gift to the President.
Estrella has provided instructions to a seven-member committee entrusted with formulating the IRR, with a mandate to complete the crafting of these crucial regulations within the 60-day timeframe following the law's enactment on July 23, 2023.
Leading the committee is Napoleon Galit, the Agrarian Reform Undersecretary for Legal Affairs, with Alex Lorayes, the Executive Vice President of the Land Bank of the Philippines, serving as the vice chairman. Additional committee members include Marilyn Barua-Yap, the Agrarian Undersecretary for Special Concerns and External Affairs; Eduardo Guillen, the Acting Administrator of the National Irrigation Administration; Gerardo Sirios, the Administrator of the Land Registration Administration; Marife Pascua, the Vice President of Landbank; and Luis Meinrado, the Agrarian Reform Undersecretary for Policy Planning and Research.
Estrella revealed that extensive public consultations have been conducted in key agrarian reform communities across Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao to gather input from stakeholders.
Furthermore, Estrella outlined the financial implications, indicating that the condoning of the debt burden of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) would amount to P57.57 billion and would benefit 610,054 ARBs, covering 1.17 million hectares of land.
Estrella also emphasized the government's commitment to assume the P206,776 balance of obligations for 10,201 ARBs cultivating 11,531.24 hectares of agrarian reform lands under the voluntary land transfer and direct payment scheme.
President Marcos previously signed the New Agrarian Reform Emancipation Act into law on July 7th and underscored its significance during his second State of the Nation Address.
Meanwhile, despite a Commission on Audit (COA) report indicating that the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) fell short of its land acquisition and distribution targets for 2022, the DAR maintains that it achieved an "outstanding" performance in the first year of the Marcos administration, with a high fund utilization rate. During the hearing of the DAR’s P9.392-billion proposed budget for 2024 held on Aug. 17, Estrella reported before the House of Representatives committee on appropriations that in the first year of the Marcos administration (July 2022 to July 2023), the DAR was able to distribute a total of 71,360 titles covering 85,853 hectares to 68,427 farmer beneficiaries.
Of these, some 49,484 titles covering 43,623 hectares were distributed to 43,623 farmer beneficiaries from January to July 7.
In its 2022 annual audit report on DAR, the COA flagged the agency over poor accomplishments under its Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) program despite a high fund utilization rate.
The COA noted that of the P2.613 billion allocated to DAR for LAD implementation in 2022, 97.94 percent or P2.559 billion was obligated or utilized, leaving a balance of only P53.702 million as of yearend.
However, the COA said a review of the actual accomplishments under LAD implementation for the year showed that major targets were not met.
For one, the COA noted, of the target of 42,743.0041 hectares of land that should to be covered by registered Emancipation Patents/Certificates of Landownership Awards (Eps/CLOAs), only 32.94 percent or 14,081.5895 hectares were actually covered.
Of the target of 43,852.1853 hectares of land that should have complete documentation or claim folder, only 81.43 percent or 35,709.2268 hectares were processed.
Meanwhile, of the 41,807.9647 hectares of land previously covered by Eps/CLOAs and already up for distribution, only 94.66 percent or 39,574.1615 hectares were actually distributed.
Estrella, in a statement, however, pointed out that the COA report failed to differentiate the contrasting degrees of performance registered during the first and second half of 2022.
Estrella was appointed DAR chief in July 2022.
Estrella also cited the “record-breaking” performance in the distribution of e-titles under the project Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT), which that farmer-beneficiaries of
lands covered by collective certificates of land ownership awards to give farmers their individual land titles.
Estrella said the SPLIT land distribution performance for the first seven months of 2023 is outstanding compared to the cumulative 22 months overall land distribution accomplishments from March 2021 to December 2022.
“The DAR is bent on distributing at least 30,000 titles more for this year to complete its target for 2023 to distribute a total of at least 80,000 titles to our ARBs nationwide,” Estrella said.
Aklan Rep. Teodorico Haresco and Marikina City Rep. Stella Quimbo, both senior vice-chairs of the House committee on appropriations, during the budget hearing committed to push for an increased budget allocation for DAR for 2024.
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