125 farmers delisted from Luisita beneficiaries

MANILA, Philippines - At least 125 farmer-beneficiaries (FBs) in Hacienda Luisita have been disqualified, an official of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said yesterday.

DAR Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Anthony Parungao said the farmers failed to claim their respective lot allocation certificates (LAC) and sign the corresponding applications to purchase and farmer’s undertaking (APFU), which are requirements before they will be installed in their assigned farm lots.

He said to be installed means the farmers will be brought to the location of their farm lot, shown its bounds and made witness to the placement of the tarp bearing their name and lot number.

FBs receive the LAC during the lot allocation activity while the APFU is required by law and needed by the Land Bank of the Philippines to be signed by the beneficiaries to confirm their willingness and ability to fulfill obligations such as the payment of amortizations.

“It’s been too long. We can’t wait forever. We have bent over backwards, and the final deadline for them to make appeals was last February,” said Parungao.

DAR records showed that there were 171 FBs in danger of not being installed in farmlands in the sugar estate. At least 46 have appealed their case.

There is a total of 6,212 FBs in the DAR’s final masterlist.

Meanwhile, the DAR has signed an agreement with the Tarlac College of Agriculture and Tarlac State University to train 1,240 Hacienda Luisita beneficiaries on modern farming and entrepreneurship. – Rhodina Villanueva, Ding Cervantes