The Department of Agrarian and Reform is planning to include rebel-returnees in the list of beneficiaries of more than 500,000 hectares of undistributed agricultural lands.
DAR Secretary John R. Castriciones said the plan is part of the government's initiative of resolving the grievances of the rebels that forced them to take up arms, and putting to an end the five-decade-old insurgency problem.
According to data, more than 500,000 hectares of agricultural lands under the Republic Act 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law and another 230,000 hectares of government-owned lands devoted or suitable for agriculture under Executive Order No. 75 of 2019.
A total of 91.6 hectares of government-owned land in Barangay Daja Daku in San Isidro, Leyte were turned over on March 19 by the Leyte provincial government to the DAR for distribution to 458 beneficiaries, 262 of them are rebel-returnees.
Castriciones said that another group of rebel-returnees in Nueva Vizcaya will be given their shares of farm lots next month.
The department also distributed to 1,573 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) a total of 2,335.31 hectares of agricultural lands that are spread over the five provinces in Eastern Visayas on March 19.
Certificates of Land Ownership Awards were granted to 1,299 ARBs for 1,455 hectares of farmland in Leyte; 12 ARBs for nine hectares in Southern Leyte; 225 ARBs for 417.6 hectares in Northern Samar; 151 ARBs for 315.75 hectares in Western Samar; and 78 ARBs for 138 hectares in Eastern Samar in a ceremony held at the Leyte Normal University in Tacloban City, Leyte.