DAR to come up with initial list of Luisita beneficiaries by August or September

By Carlo Lorenzo J. Datu

Monday 2nd of July 2012

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, July 2 (PIA) -- Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is set to release its preliminary list of farm workers who are entitled to lots in Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac by August or September this year.

The preliminary master list would be made available to the public, particularly to interested parties who may wish to seek inclusion and exclusion of names that made it to the list, DAR secretary Virgilio De los Reyes said in a press statement.

“All the proceedings in the identification, screening, and validation of potential beneficiaries in Hacienda Luisita are open to the public in the interest of transparency,” de los Reyes stressed.

De los Reyes expressed confidence that the department could meet its self-imposed deadline of identifying the potential beneficiaries in Hacienda Luisita within three to four months following the computerization of farm workers’ database.

A report from the DAR’s Management Information System indicates that a total of 8,482 farm workers underwent field interview and screening of credentials as of June 29.

DAR started the process of beneficiaries’ identification, screening, and validation at the 10 barangays of Luisita last May 18, soon after the department’s lawyers received a copy of the final and executory decision of the Supreme Court ordering the distribution of a huge portion of the sugar estate to farm workers who were tilling the land as of November 21, 1989 under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Potential beneficiaries were scheduled for interviews in batches, beginning May 23.

The agency would be able to distribute land titles to 6,296 eligible farmer-beneficiaries in six months to one year.

In a media briefing in Pampanga last week, the Agrarian reform chief clarified that, “we are not delaying the land distribution in Luisita. Please understand that it takes time. We follow a system. We have over 8,400 claimants. Twenty percent of the farmer-beneficiaries in the official list have already died, so we are determining their heirs.”

Apart from identification and screening, two other major activities namely, segregation and subdivision survey and preparation for post-distribution support services are being conducted simultaneously to fast-track the distribution process.

The 6,000-hectare Hacienda Luisita will be the biggest CARP-covered land ever to be distributed by DAR to farmers in Philippine agrarian reform history.

First implemented in 1988 during the term of Aquino’s mother, President Cory, CARP has already been extended twice, in 1998 and in 2009.(WLB/CLJD-PIA3)