MANILA, Philippines — Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary John Castriciones has resigned from his post to run for senator in the May 2022 elections.
Castriciones took his oath as a member of the ruling PDP-Laban party recently.
He bid farewell to DAR officials and employees yesterday and thanked them for supporting him during his stint in the agency.
Castriciones was supposed to run for the Senate during the 2019 midterm elections but decided to stay as DAR secretary.
Militant farmers criticized Castriciones for “early campaigning,” saying he turned the “DAR-to-Door” program of the government across the country as his electoral sorties.
Castriciones said that even before the pandemic, the DAR has been distributing agricultural lands to farmer-beneficiaries under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.