DAR chief vows to start process of distributing land

Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes. www.dar.gov.ph/

Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes said Tuesday he would start immediately the process of distributing Hacienda Luisita to its 6,000 farm workers.

“We will do all three things simultaneously: the valuation, ocular inspection, and the identification of the beneficiaries,” De los Reyes said in an interview.

He said land surveys would be conducted and beneficiaries identified in a process that would take about a year.

De los Reyes said the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) would have to show to the government its net income in 1989, the year the Supreme Court said the value of the estate should be set in accordance with the aborted stock distribution scheme hammered out that year between the management and the farm workers.

Valuation would be conducted by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Land Bank of the Philippines, he said.

Agrarian Reform Undersecretary Antonio Parungao said the valuation and land acquisition process usually takes nine months to a year, should all things go smoothly.

Segregation survey

The identification of the beneficiaries and the validation and subdivision surveys are the most time consuming steps, Parungao said. The government would also have to do a “segregation survey” of roads, canals, and other areas in the estate not covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

“We have to validate the beneficiaries approximately numbering 6,296 as this is needed to determine the size of the individual lots,” Parungao said.

DAR officials previously said identifying the farmers entitled to the land would be difficult as some beneficiaries had died and had passed on their plots to their relatives.

He said DAR would partner with other agencies like the Land Registration Authority and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to help in the survey.

Parungao said that HLI could still challenge the valuation base set by the high tribunal, but this should not delay the land distribution process.

Process of distribution

The company, which used to run the largest sugar plantation and mill in Luzon, would have to file a petition first before the DAR Adjudication Board.

“The decision on the amount can be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. But this will not prevent the process of distribution from continuing. In other words, land distribution will proceed despite challenges to the valuation,” Parungao explained.