Government intends to distribute .3 million hectares of land in 2011

By Jess Diaz (The Philippine Star) Updated December 30, 2010 

MANILA, Philippines - The government intends to acquire some 300,000 hectares of private and public estates next year for distribution to agrarian reform beneficiaries, Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas said yesterday.

He said P10.179 billion is allocated for this purpose in the P1.645-trillion 2011 national budget.

“The fresh funding will enable the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to take over some 200,000 hectares of private land and 100,000 hectares of public land and distribute it to small landless farmers,” he said.

He added that the 300,000 hectares targeted for acquisition and dispersal next year would cover around 20 percent of the residual undistributed lands.

He said the government has so far awarded a total of 7,558,777 hectares of land to some five million agrarian reform beneficiaries countrywide, leaving only 1,485,295 hectares still to be distributed.

In August 2009, Congress passed Republic Act 9700, which extended by another five years the land acquisition and distribution schedule under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program of 1988.

Under the law, the DAR has up to June 30, 2014 to complete its land procurement and dispersal plan and expand the economic opportunities of small farmers who currently do not own the land they are cultivating.

President Aquino previously indicated that once the land acquisition and distribution plan is completed, he would rectify the overlapping functions of the DAR, Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.