TWENTY-FIVE agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) availed themselves of free legal consultation through Agrarian Reform Justice on Wheels (Arjow) of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Negros Occidental-North in E.B. Magalona town recently.
DAR-Negros Occidental I Chief of Legal Assistance lawyer Leandro Castro, who
led the activity, emphasized that the law is impartial as to gender and status of the beneficiaries.
"As long as they abide by the agrarian law being implemented by the government through the delivery of social justice," he said.
Arjow is a regular activity of the agency as it aids farmer-beneficiaries.
It tackles the salient points of the Republic Act No. 6657 or "an act instituting a Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) to promote social justice and industrialization, providing the mechanism for its implementation and for other purposes."
It is specifically focused on the topics of retention, mediation and compulsory arbitration.
In accordance with the Gender and Development Mandate, other legal concerns of the ARBs were also catered as to their rights and obligations as farmer-beneficiaries.
DAR-Negros Occidental I said the agency, at present, utilizes more aggressive alternative dispute resolution techniques in mediation to reduce conflicts maturing into court cases.
The general objective is to persuade the contending parties to settle their disputes amicably or out of court before the DAR, it said.
"Such continuous field activities conducted by the DAR are evidence that despite the inconveniences brought by the pandemic, the service for the Filipino people is on," it added.
With Negros Occidental still under the Modified General Community Quarantine, the activity complied with minimum health protocols set by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Department of Health.
