By Chito Chavez

A former Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) secretary under the current administration now belonging to a militant farmer’s group claimed that President Duterte and current DAR Secretary John Castriciones are very eager to fast-track the conversion of agricultural lands in the country.

“The main reason and dirty politics behind Duterte’s preposterous statement blaming me for the ‘slow land conversion’ is to justify the anti-farmer Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Administrative Order No. 1 series of 2019 issued by current DAR secretary John Castriciones. This DAR AO will unprecedentedly fast-track the conversion of agricultural lands to non-agricultural uses and this will greatly imperil the state of farmers and our national food security,” said former DAR secretary Rafael Mariano.

Mariano insisted it is the President’s will to fast track-land conversion to benefit his associates describing it as a form of corruption.

Mariano further added that Duterte and Castriciones are “itching to accelerate the conversion of agricultural lands’’.

“Blaming me for the slow-paced land conversion is really awkward. As the then DAR secretary, it was my mandated duty to protect farmers and their land tenurial rights,” the peasant leader said.

He noted the President is aware that in 2016 “when I was still in DAR, I proposed an executive order for a two-year moratorium on the acceptance and processing of land conversion applications to prioritize food security and the protection of remaining agricultural lands from being converted into real estate, eco-tourism and commercial uses of local and foreign businesses’’.

“DAR under my brief term also planned to conduct a nationwide inventory of public and private agricultural land for distribution and a nationwide revalidation of the status of agrarian reform beneficiaries if they are still positioned on the land awarded to them. The Presidential Agrarian Reform Council or PARC chaired by Duterte snubbed the draft executive order on land use conversion moratorium while the revalidation efforts did not take off as I was rejected by the Commission on Appointments,” Mariano added.

He said the draft EO on land conversion moratorium that never saw the light was then proposed by him to be “applied to all awarded lands under Republic Act 6657 as amended, Presidential Decree No. 27 and other agrarian reform laws, all agricultural lands with notices of coverage issued by DAR, irrigated and irrigable lands, prime agricultural lands, retention areas of the land owners which are tenanted and agricultural lands with presence of agricultural activities that are being cultivated by the farmers individually or collectively.”

During his term at DAR, Mariano said the agency conducted an inventory of land-use conversion applications pending and/or acted upon.

He said DAR then also held a National Conference on Land Use Conversion to expedite decision or action on LUC applications with paramount consideration to tillers’ rights and national food security.

“DAR under my term issued a directive that the DAR shall not accept land use conversion applications with incomplete requirements without prejudice to the refiling of application. This was applied especially to applicants with violations or illegal and premature conversions or those already conducting earth-moving activities even without DAR conversion order. Illegal and premature conversions are prevalent and I did such measures to protect farmers and the food security of current and future generations,” he insisted.

Mariano said Castriociones’ DAR Administrative Order No. 1 series of 2019 will fast-track the conversion of agricultural lands into NON-AGRICULTURAL USES especially in component cities and first class to sixth class municipalities even without requiring the applicant to submit two important requirements stipulated in the Comprehensive Rules on Land Use Conversion or DAR AO 1 series of 2002 which include the Certification of Reclassification from the HLURB and Certification from the Department of Agriculture.

“Based on the new DAR AO on land use conversion, all land conversion applications are deemed or automatically approved. Instead of the 120 days minimum period stated in the comprehensive rules, Castriciones wants land conversion application to be concluded within only 30 days,” Mariano noted.

The Kilusang magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and farmers’ organizations are set to protest and contest DAR’s AO 1 on land conversion.