By Ellalyn De Vera-Ruiz
Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones has ordered the creation of a task force to investigate reported irregularities in a regional office of the agency.
Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary John Castriciones
(DAR / MANILA BULLETIN)
The task force’s mandate is to come up with immediate resolutions on the concerns of farmers from Pampanga and Tarlac.
“While we are investigating this case, we will re-survey the problematic lands, process your land titles and attend to your other concerns so that time will not be wasted,” Castriciones said.
This assertion came from a dialogue held at the Department of Agrarian Reform Central Office last Thursday.
Volunteer Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) Regional Head Pyra Lucas, who accompanied the farmers, alleged that there have been anomalies in the regional office that have delayed the awarding of the farmers’ land titles for a number of years.
The landholdings in conflict are located in Barangay Malonzo, Bamban,Tarlac; Barangay Concepcion, Tarlac; Barangay Gutad, Florida, Pampanga; and Cabcom, Clark, Pampanga.
Castriciones assured the farmers’ groups that the present administration would exhaust its resources to resolve all land problems including those from the past.
Also present in the dialogue were Undersecretary for Field Operations Karlo Bello, Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Luis Pangulayan, Regional Director Homer Tobias and other DAR officials.