DAR mobilizes grassroots in identifying ARBs

MANILA, March 4 –- The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said on Thursday it is mobilizing the Barangay Agrarian Reform Committees (BARCs) nationwide to play a key role in identifying deserving farmer-beneficiaries qualified for the government’s land reform program.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman said this is part of stringent measures his office is adopting to avoid problems of identifying legitimate beneficiaries.

The Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) has acknowledged the vital role BARC plays when it raised, during the DAR's yearend assessment in Pampanga last January, the need to reactivate it, especially in areas with big balance in land distribution, to ensure that actual farmers and farmworkers qualify as beneficiaries.

Under the new implementing rules and regulations, BARC is tasked to “certify under oath” the master list of beneficiaries selected by the municipal agrarian reform officers and by the beneficiaries screening committees in so far as commercial farms and big plantations are concerned.

"The BARC will surely have a big say here since its members are picked in the same community and are, therefore, in the best position to identify actual farmers and farmworkers of a particular landholding in the area," Pangandaman said. (PNA) scs/JCA

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