Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes. Photo from www.dar.gov.ph/
MANILA, Philippines—Farmers covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and their organizations need not hire private lawyers for legal services in relation to their farm enterprises, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said.
The DAR said it recently trained in-house legal and support service teams to undertake “enterprise lawyering” for CARP beneficiaries.
“These teams can assist the beneficiaries and their organizations in securing production credit, ensuring the legal requirements for market agreements, and acquiring a better understanding of agri-insurance contracts and other legal requirements for starting and maintaining an enterprise,” the DAR said.
In a statement, Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes said this task used to be carried out by the support services staff of the DAR. This will now be shared by the legal officers of the department in order to tie in the legal documents required for securing support services.
“This is a form of legal assistance directed at strengthening the ARB (agrarian reform beneficiaries) organizations and making them entrepreneurially viable and, therefore, more bankable,” he said.
The pilot project of providing legal assistance to CARP beneficiaries was undertaken with the assistance of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Cooperative Development Authority, Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp.