President Marcos and Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Hae Kyong Yu brave the rains to make a site visit to the state-of-the-art soils lab in Agusan del Sur. Photo courtesy of Provincial Public Information Office in Agusan del Sur.
PROSPERIDAD, AGUSAN DEL SUR — President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Friday ordered the fast-tracking of processes leading to the provision of land to landless farmers as he vowed to complete the country’s agrarian reform before his term ends in 2028.
The President made the promise during a visit in this town to, among others, distribute land titles to 3,184 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in the Caraga region held at the Datu Lipus Makapandong Cultural Center within the provincial capitol complex.
He said his administration would pursue all legal avenues to address the longstanding agrarian concerns of farmers.
He recalled that on Sept. 13, 2022, he imposed a one-year moratorium on the payment of amortization and interest by farmer-beneficiaries for the land given them. This provided farmers with some financial breathing space from their debts.
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“Ayoko ng band-aid solusyon. Ang hanap ko ay permanenteng lunas (I don’t want a band-aid solution. I’m looking for a permanent solution,” the President said, in explaining why he signed into law Republic Act 11953, or the New Agrarian Emancipation Act, which condoned the debts of over 600,000 ARBs nationwide.
Five days after declaring Martial Law in 1972, Marcos’ father and namesake issued Presidential Decree No. 2 that set a land reform program in the country, which was led by Conrado Estrella, grandfather of current Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III.
Estrella III said the distribution of land titles would boost the agricultural activities in the region and uplift the farmers’ economic standing “because giving these thousands of landless farmers a land to call their own would spark confidence in them to work harder and to make it more productive.”
The President noted that the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) was able to distribute over 90,000 land titles last year, which almost doubled the original target of only 50,000 titles.
READ: Marcos leads groundbreaking of soils lab in Agusan del Sur
A total of 4,659 hectares of agricultural lands were distributed to the ARBs making them landowners with Certificate of Land Ownership Awards.
The DAR also distributed P8.9 million worth of farm machinery and equipment to 11 ARB organizations in the region, which are under the Climate-Resilient Farm Productivity and Support Program and in partnership with the Department of Agriculture (DA) for the upscaling of the coconet and biofertilizers enterprise.
“Agrarian reform remains an unrealized dream because the emancipation of farmers does not end with the receipt of titles declaring ownership of the land they are already tilling. They must be unshackled from debt, freed from high cost of inputs, relieved of constraints that impoverish them,” the President said.
Earlier, the President led groundbreaking rites for the construction of a P250-million state-of-the-art soil testing laboratory that is expected to support agricultural productivity enhancement initiatives in the province.
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The project is supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. Among other dignitaries present during the ceremony was Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Hae Kyong Yu.
President Marcos is being briefed by Dr. Junvie Goloran, soil scientist who study in Griffith University in Australia who is now consultant of Upland Sustainable Agri-forest Development (USAD) in Agusan del Sur about how the state-of-the-art soils laboratory works. Photo courtesy of Provincial Public Information Office in Agusan del Sur.