91% of lots given to Luisita beneficiaries marked with boundaries

MANILA, Philippines - Close to 91 percent of farm lots awarded to the farmers of Hacienda Luisita have been marked with boundaries, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said.

DAR Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Anthony Parungao said 6,240, or 90.6 percent, have been “monumented,” while 5,527 or 80.23 percent of farmer-beneficiaries in the category have been installed, based on the latest report from field officers.

Monumenting involves the physical delineation on the ground of the beneficiaries’ CARP-awarded land by placing boundary markers or mujons.

“We are confident that our self-imposed deadline for monumenting the lots and installing the farmer-beneficiaries, which has been set for May, will be met, unless outside forces obstruct the department’s activities,” Parungao said.

Parungao added DAR has been encouraging and assisting beneficiaries to build organizations to allow the agency to more effectively and efficiently in channel support service programs and resources of the department.

“We are assisting the farmer-beneficiaries in making their transition into owner-cultivators. We are helping them organize themselves so that they are able to better organize farm production and marketing of their produce,” Parungao said.

In addition to helping the farmer-beneficiaries organize themselves, Parungao said the DAR has encouraged the voluntary physical grouping of contiguous lots so that scheduling of use of farming machinery such as tractors would be more orderly.