VARIOUS non-government organizations (NGOs) are stepping up their campaign for the extension of the issuance of Notices of Coverage (NOCs) as a measure to address land acquisition and distribution gap in the country, including Negros Occidental.
Maricel Tolentino, deputy director of the Kaisahan Tungo sa Kaunlaran sa Kanayunan at Repormang Pansakahan, said the continuation of the notice issuance is necessary in the bid to complete the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp).
On June 30, 2014, simultaneous with the expiration of the Republic Act 9700 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (Carper) Law, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) also stopped the mandate to issue NOCs.
Tolentino said Kaisahan, along with other groups forming part of the “Joint Action for Land Rights” project, has already assisted several congressmen who filed bills at the House of Representatives pushing for the NOC issuance extension.
These are House Bill 114 authored by Representative Teddy Brawner Baguilat of Ifugao, and House Bill 3051 introduced by Representatives Kaka Bag-ao of Dinagat Islands, Gabriel Bordado Jr. of Camarines Sur and Akbayan Party-list Representative Tomasito Villarin.
These bills, which already have counterpart legislations in Senate filed by Senators Risa Hontiveros and Gregorio Honasan, proposed the continuation and completion of land acquisition and distribution component of Carp.
“There is a need to continue the issuance of NOCs pending the passage of the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill,” Tolentino said, adding that stoppage of the issuance impedes the success of agrarian reform program.
To present the pressing scenario of the Carp implementation in Negros Occidental, the Kaisahan initiated the Local Media Briefing on Land Rights Issues at the GT Hotel in Bacolod City Monday, July 3.
Attended by leaders of various local agrarian reform beneficiary organizations (Arbos), the activity is part of the group’s campaign to push for “true” land reform.
Tolentino said they might also hold a lobbying activity where farmer-beneficiaries from Negros Occidental will be brought to the Congress and personally ask for the support of key legislators in passing the bills into law.
During the briefing, the group presented other “barriers” contributing to the province’s large backlogs in the land acquisition and distribution, the biggest in the country.
The Kaisahan reported that as of January 2016, there are 112,564 hectares of agricultural lands from 9,001 landholdings in the province that should still be distributed.
Citing the DAR data, it said that out of 45,000 hectares targeted for distribution in Negros Occidental, only 22,483 hectares is the workable balance for 2017 to 2019.
Gil Portillo, area coordinator of Kaisahan-Negros Occidental, mainly attributed the cause of a “slow” Carp implementation in the province to erroneous NOCs.
Of the 45,000-hectare targeted for distribution until 2019, about 30 percent have erroneous or defective notices, the group claimed.
“Having erroneous NOCs has become the strategy of the government to delay the completion of Carp implementation,” Portillo said, adding that erroneous notices could be clerical errors on names and address, and ownership woes.
Other factors which impeded the acquisition and distribution of lands are resistance of “landlords,” technical problems with other government agencies, insurgency problem, and conversion, among others.
Most of these “obstructions” were experienced and raised Monday by participating farmer-organizations and cooperatives.
Teofilo Velasco, chairman of Overflow Farmers and Farm Workers Association in Kabankalan City, said it took them so long before they were informed that there were errors in their notices.
For Don Esteban Agrarian Reform Cooperative, its chairman Felixberto Bucaling said despite having the certificate of land ownership award, “we still have difficulties in cultivating our land because of the imposition of some members of the rebel group.”
Both the Kaisahan and the Arbos said although Carp is not a total failure during the Duterte administration, the implementation is still very slow.
They said there are many pro-farmer pronouncements, which are not yet translated into immediate resolution of land issues in favor of the farmers.
