Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Acting Secretary Bernie Ferrer Cruz, who formally took over the agency’s top post on Monday, vowed to bring progress in rural areas by prioritizing the needs of small farmers.
Cruz took over from former DAR Secretary John Castriciones who resigned to concentrate on his senatorial bid under PDP-Laban in next year’s election.
As new DAR chief, Cruz also wants to fast-track the distribution of certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), as well as the provision of support programs and services to ARB organizations (ARBOs) and fast-track the resolution of cases under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) implementation.
“Under my leadership, the agency would double its effort to distribute all the remaining undistributed lands to the landless farmers, provide support services to ARBs and bring social justice in agrarian reform communities,” he said.
Cruz said farm consolidation might be the best path toward improving agriculture, livelihood, and productivity. He said there are two consolidating initiatives that are already being pursued by DAR which include the Mega-Farm and the Inclusive Partnerships for Agricultural Competitiveness projects.
“Both initiatives are intended to improve market linkages and the competitiveness of farmers and aid the DAR in coordinating with institutional partners that can assist in the capital buildup, management skills, and research and development,” Cruz said.
He said the improvements to farm incomes and productivity would also do much to encourage agricultural expansion and inspire succeeding generations to continue farming, both of which are critical for the nation to achieve food security.
“I am committed to bring industrialization in the agricultural sector and through the provisions of support services, such as livelihood opportunities, infrastructure projects, farm machinery and equipment, capability-buildings training, loan facilities, among other support, we can achieve a stable rural economy,” he added.
Cruz was the undersecretary for foreign-assisted and special projects office prior to his appointment.
It can be recalled that Cruz played a big role in the approval by the World Bank (WB) of the DAR’s Support to Parcelization of Land to Individual Title (SPLIT).
The SPLIT program seeks to give a total of 1.1 million agrarian reform beneficiaries, covered under collective certificates of land ownership award (CCLOA), the chance to identify and own their respective individual land titles and farm lots.
The WB approved a loan package amounting to P24 billion for the implementation of the SPLIT program, comprising 78 percent loan proceeds amounting to P19.240 billion and 22 percent Government of the Philippines counterpart funding amounting to P5.385 billion.
DAR would implement the project in 78 provinces in 15 regional offices, covering a total area of 1.368 million hectares, starting this year 2020 until 2024.