Poor Farmers In ARMM Get Land Titles From DAR

The Department of Agrarian Reform in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DAR-ARMM) has subdivided 12,212.9 hectares of agricultural lands to 4,469 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in the region from 2012 to 2015.

Amihilda Sangcopan, regional secretary of DAR-ARMM, said it was more than 50 percent leap from previous DAR and ARMM administrations in terms of land distribution to farmer-beneficiaries.

As a result, the national government granted DAR-ARMM an annual agrarian reform subsidy of PHP8 million beginning this 2016, from PHP since 2012, to maximize efforts of providing farmers with lands they can call their own, she told reporters.

Sangcopan said the massive distribution of lands to farmers commenced when ARMM Regional Governor Mujiv Hataman was named by President Benigno Aquino III as caretaker governor in 2012 and continued when he was elected as governor in 2013.

DAR-ARMM distributed a total of 2,267.7 hectares of lands in 2012, 6,543 hectares in 2013, 1,622 hectares in 2014 and 1,779.6 hectares last year.

Sangcopan said the province of Lanao del Sur has the largest beneficiaries with 1,830 ARBs.

In Sulu, 925 ARBs have benefited from the government program while it totalled to 1,702 in Maguindanao and 1,067 each in Sulu and Basilan.

Sangcopan said land distribution forms part of the government’s peace process in Mindanao, believing that land dispute is one of the reasons why armed conflict occur in most areas in Mindanao.

“This is to empower our farmer communities in the region, to make them productive and improve family income,” she added. (PNA) /JSV/NYP/EOF