The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) 6 (Western Visayas) is left with 8.34 percent of the target 467,415 hectares to be distributed to qualified farmers in the region under its agrarian reform program.

Since the program started in 1972 as Presidential Decree 27 until the enactment of Republic Act (RA) 9700 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms Law, the total scope of DAR is about 467,000 hectares, DAR-6 Director Sheila Enciso said yesterday.

“So, where are we now? We have already distributed 428,418 hectares. Our balance is 38,997 hectares,” she said at the Kapihan sa Bagong Pilipinas.

About 271,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) have benefitted from the program in the region.

The awarded landholdings included 16,764 hectares under the term of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., consisting of 17,999 ARBs.

Enciso said they wanted to see the remaining areas awarded to ARBs within the term of Marcos.

Negros Occidental has the biggest land area left for distribution with 28,144 hectares; followed by Capiz with 5,719; Iloilo, 4,752; Guimaras, 297; Antique, 45; and Aklan, 40.

The remaining areas are “very contentious landholdings” awaiting resolution before distribution.

Meanwhile, RA 11953, or the New Agrarian Emancipation Act, has benefitted 18,918 ARBs in the region, while 14,513 landholdings are subject to validation.

“We are trying to identify those in the 182,000 hectares for Western Visayas, included in the 763,000 [nationwide],” she said.

Under the law, the government will pay the amortization for the principal payments, interests and penalties for the lot awarded to the ARB.

Meanwhile, over 6,000 land titles were distributed to ARBs in Central Visayas covering almost 5,000 hectares of land, as of Friday, June 21, Leomides Villareal, DAR-Region 7 director said.

He said the total land distributed to ARBs was already 90 percent of the total target coverage of the program covering the Negros Oriental, Siquijor, Cebu, and Bohol. (PNA)