P515-M sought to determine effectiveness of national agrarian reform program

MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker is seeking a P515 million funding to determine the effectiveness of the national agrarian reform program of the country.

In his interpellation, Magsasaka Rep. Argel Cabatbat said previous beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program are no longer in control of the lands given to them.

In response, Aklan 2nd District Rep. Teodorico Haresco Jr., who was sponsoring the proposed 2022 budget of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), said the agency proposed P515 million for the “Kumustasaka at ARBisitahan” program, intended to determine the current state of the land reform program.

However, no funds were approved by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

“Ni isang piso po, wala. Due to the limited budget… Tama po si Congressman Cabatbat na mahal talaga mag-validate pero kailangan mag-validate,” Haresco said.

(There is nothing, even a single peso due to limited budget. Congressman Cabatbat is right, it is expensive to validate the situation in the lands, but it has to be validated.)

Cabatbat expressed support towards the restoration of the P515 million funds for DAR to check the effectiveness of the government’s national agrarian reform program.

“Ito pong P515 million na ito ay gagamitin ng departamento para malaman kung ilan ba sa mga magsasaka natin na binigyan natin ng lupa at sila pala’y tuloy na nagsasaka at ilan ang nagsasaka o kaya naibenta o naisanla ang lupa,” Cabatbat said.

(This P515 million will be used to see how many of the farmers given land are still managing it and how many are no longer managing it or has sold their land.)

“I move that we give the department that P500 million because that will determine if the department or our national agrarian reform program was successful or not,” he added.

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JPV