[ journal.com.ph ] June 7, 2008
DAVAO CITY -- Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser C. Pangandaman finally led the transfer of the Department of Agrarian Reform Central Office to Davao City, realizing the President’s promise to bring national agencies closer to the people, particularly to the provinces in Mindanao.
Pangandaman chaired the first executive committee meeting of DARCO officials right after the turn over of the property formerly owned by the Southern Philippines Development Authority Bgy. Catalunan Pequeño to the DAR.
SPDA Administrator Sultan Yahya Tomawid turned over the lot to DARCO in simple rites.
“We expect to expedite the implementation of agrarian reform here in Mindanao, now that the region becomes the seat of agrarian reform operation,” Pangandaman said.
Based on the DAR’s record, some 247,987 hectares of the remaining undistributed lands will come from seven provinces in the region, namely: Maguindanao 43,036 hectares; Cotabato, 38,333 hectares; Davao Sur, 37,802 hectares; Lanao Sur, 37,420 hectares; South Cotabato, 36,631 hectares; Bukidnon, 28,595 hectares; and Lanao Norte with 26,170 hectares.
The bulk of the agrarian reform assistance is also confined in the region with 22 foreign-assisted projects operating in 25 provinces involving 1,890 barangays.
The DAR has poured P11 billion in foreign-assisted projects in the region, some of which are still ongoing, in compliance with the President’s vision of making the area a “super region”.
Among the projects implemented in Southern Philippines include the World Bank-funded Second Agrarian Reform Communities Project, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation -- Mindanao Sustainable Settlement Area Development Project, and the Community-Managed Agrarian Reform and Poverty Reduction Project.
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