Agrarian reform chief pressed to ‘cut cleanly,’ resign

Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes: Under pressure

MANILA, Philippines—The union of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has released its own Christmas message to Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes, asking him to “cut cleanly” and step down.

In response to De los Reyes’ open letter to the DAR community, the DAR Employees Association (Darea) and the peasant group Task Force Mapalad (TFM) said the department should have a new secretary “that will motivate, inspire and lead the DAR employees.”

Darea said the DAR community would hold President Aquino to his promise of finishing the land distribution aspect of the agrarian reform program by the end of his term. But it would require a different secretary, the farmers said.

“He should not be an arrogant secretary who has the habit of bad-mouthing the employees because he is intellectually superior. He should be a secretary who cares for the welfare of his employees who are in the twilight of their productive years,” the group said in the letter.

Darea, which represents some 11,000 rank-and-file employees of the DAR, said it was not merely repeating the line that the DAR under his watch was very slow.

“We are appreciating the efforts of our fellow employees in spite of you,” it said, addressing De los Reyes.

“We are not ‘parroting’ but stating the fact that based on available records your more than two years at the DAR is a disaster not only for the farmers but to the employees as well!” Darea added.

The union, however, said it found the tone of De los Reyes’ letter to be “refreshing,” and devoid of arrogant words the official purportedly had used to describe “some members of the DAR family” in a previous exchange. Darea did not explain what this meant.

The group also accused the Cabinet member of fudging the facts.

In his letter, De los Reyes said he considered 2012 a good year for the department and that it was able to accomplish much more than what his critics gave them credit for.

He noted that his department had issued memoranda of valuation (MOV) to 13,327 landholdings covering 92,129 hectares as of November. He said the general public did not know that the issuance of the MOV, following a long and tedious process, meant that the DAR’s work was basically finished.

“Very few among the agrarian reform advocates, much less the general public, know that with the issuance of the MOV, the DAR’s work is essentially done,” he said.

But Darea said De los Reyes was not being truthful.

“Again you lied when you wrote that partial November 2012 reports show that MOVs have been issued LBP compensable holdings totaling 92,129 hectares because it was Gilda Pico, the Land Bank of the Philippines president herself, who clarified that as of the cut-off date of October 31, claim folders that were processed amount to only 463 covering 5,554 hectares for processing of the MOV,” it said.

“We are now eagerly awaiting your clarification that the figure you cited is your total accomplishment for the past three years and not for this year” alone, it said.