MANILA, Philippines -- The Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) move to temporarily stop land conversion of agricultural lands to real estate development was criticized by militant groups on Wednesday.

“It is good that a memo for the suspension of land use conversions was issued but this is not enough. There should also be a ban on crop conversions and an order reverting converted rice lands back to their original use,” said Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, chairman of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Movement of Farmers in the Philippines, KMP).

DAR issued a memorandum on Tuesday because of the claim by experts that land conversion was contributing to the rice shortage in the country.

In a statement, Mariano said the solution would be to abolish the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and to return lands to the farmers.

Mariano also claimed that in Southern Tagalog alone, 180,000 hectares of 1.3 million hectares of land had been converted and the only beneficiaries of these were landlords and real estate companies.

Meanwhile, Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman said he would be meeting with concerned agencies, farmer groups, and real estate companies next Wednesday to discuss the memorandum thoroughly.

“[The memorandum] is temporary and the main intention is to review the guidelines [of land conversion],” he told INQUIRER.net.

“We want this [the review] to be fast,” Pangandaman said, because several government projects were lined up for real estate development, including housing for soldiers and government employees.

“We want to strike a balance vis-à-vis development and production,” he also said.