THE DEPARTMENT of Agrarian Reform (DAR) XI assured that Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) would receive adequate support and intervention to sustain farmers’ livelihoods.
In a press forum on June 25, Atty. Jazon Collado, DAR XI regional director, said adequate interventions would help prevent ARBs from selling their lands as this is prohibited under Republic Act 6657, stating that “beneficiaries under Presidential Decree No. 27 who have culpably sold, disposed of, or abandoned their land are disqualified from becoming beneficiaries under their program.”
“We always monitor the ARBs, but it is their obligation and right to enrich the land given to them. Kung ibebenta nila, iiwanan nila, isangla nila, may karampatang parusa iyon. Pwede kaming mag-disqualify, we’ll declare the land as vacant or open, and we’ll get new beneficiaries,” Collado said.
Collado shared that services were given through their Program Beneficiaries Development, which includes social infrastructure building, climate resilient productivity support especially in disaster-affected areas, and enterprise development and economic support.
Among the targeted 660 ARBs, more than 500 were supported with technical, enterprise, farm and physical infra support from 2022 to 2024. All in all, DAR XI gave interventions to 74,000 ARBs across the region through different support programs.
“We continue to evaluate and document government agricultural lands so that we may able to grant it with the ARBs or farmers,” he added.
With this, Collado said more ARBOs (ARB Organizations) were able to yield abundant production through their plantations.
“Maraming ARBOS dito na multi-millionare na. They have huge productions at binebenta nila ito, dahil ang Davao ay madaming plantations, so when the lands were distributed and organized, tuloy-tuloy ang inputs and their training capacity so that they could sell their products at a higher price,” he said.
DAR XI grants beneficiaries with an area not exceeding hectares, which may cover a contiguous tract of land or several parcels of land.
