DAR: No missing 900 hectares in Luisita distribution plan

MANILA, Philippines - All farm lots covered by the Supreme Court’s directive on the Hacienda Luisita case will be distributed to the farmer-beneficiaries, the Department of Agrarian Reform said Wednesday.

The DAR made the assurance amid claims of a farmers’ organization that the total area of farm lots to be distributed is 900 hectares less than what the High Court ordered.

"There are no missing 900 hectares as alleged by AMBALA (Alyansa ng Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita)," DAR Undersecretary for Operations Joe Grageda said.

Grageda said that AMBALA may have based its computation on the Notices of Land Valuation and Acquisition that were posted by DAR in all barangays of Hacienda Luisita as required by law.

The NLVAs posted so far, represent only the initial landholdings valued by Land Bank covering around 3,300 hectares, he added.

"The documentation for the remaining area will be completed as soon as the segregation plans prepared by the private survey firm hired by DAR are approved by LRA (Land Registration Authority). Land Bank will then finish the valuation of the remaining lots as a matter of course, after which DAR will also post the NLVAs for these landholdings," Grageda said.

He also noted that the private survey firm had conducted the consolidation and subdivision survey on a total of 5,149 hectares in Hacienda Luisita, the vast property owned by the family of President Benigno Aquino III.

Of the area surveyed, the 500 hectares of the converted area and 80.51 hectares covered by Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) were not subject to distribution based on the SC’s final decision in the Luisita case.

Roughly 468.49 hectares were excluded from distribution as these areas cannot be distributed to individual beneficiaries because of their current use, the DAR explained.

Excluded from distribution are residential areas, canals, roads, firebreaks, cemetery, buffer zones, lagoons, fishponds, eroded areas, and legal easements.

"While non-farm lots such as roads, firebreaks, fishponds, lagoons, and canals were excluded from distribution, they will still be covered under CARP (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program) for common use of qualified beneficiaries," Grageda pointed out. "These areas will remain under RP title and will serve as common areas for beneficiaries."

Minus the common areas, Grageda noted that a total of 4,099 hectares of farm lots would be distributed to more than 6,000 qualified beneficiaries in Hacienda Luisita.

Meanwhile, he said that the DAR had just finished finalizing the mechanics of allocating farm lots for those who qualified as beneficiaries in the country’s biggest sugar estate.

Prior to this, the DAR had wrapped up the most contentious stages in the land distribution process, which include the identification of qualified beneficiaries, segregation survey, and subdivision survey, he said.

Grageda said that the DAR has finished almost 90 percent of its job as far as land distribution is concerned, noting that what remains to be completed are technical matters such as lot allocation, generation of land titles and Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs), and the actual distribution of land.

The DAR remains confident that it will be able to distribute the land to qualified beneficiaries by the middle of the year.