This is an Open Letter of the Secretary to All DAR Employees but might also be addressed to all who cares about agrarian reform in general: 1 August 2014 My Dear Colleagues in the Department: Let me first extend my gratitude to everyone who helped in the preparation, issuance, and service of Notices of Coverage (NOCs). Together, we were able to prepare and serve NOCs to more than 27,000 landholdings with an aggregate size of more than 220,000 hectares in just a matter of six months – from January up to June 2014. Only around 3,000 landholdings covering about 35,000 hectares were not issued NOCs out of the more than 60,000 landholdings being covered under Compulsory Acquisition (CA). With this NOC accomplishment, we will still be able to proceed with the processing, documentation, and eventually the acquisition and distribution of landholdings under CA even beyond 30 June 2014. For those landholdings not issued NOCs or were not voluntarily offered for sale before 30 June 2014, bills have already been filed in both the Senate and the House of Representatives proposing to extend our authority to issue NOCs and accept VOS. These bills have already been certified as urgent by President Aquino. The importance which the President attaches to this measure is underlined by his mention of the NOC Extension Bill in his latest State of the Nation Address. Business as Usual Contrary to the fears of many, CARP did not stop, nor was DAR closed down at the stroke of midnight of the dreaded deadline. Moreover, I doubt that there will be a restructuring of this agency in the one year and eleven months left with this Administration. I have repeatedly articulated this position: that Section 30 of R.A. No. 9700 (CARPER) allows us to continue, until resolution or completion, all cases and proceedings initiated prior to 30 June 2014. This is a position bolstered by the DOJ Opinion No. 59 series of 2013, the 2014 GAA, and, implicitly, by President Aquino’s commitment during the 2013 SONA that LAD will be completed by 2016. Considering that LAD proceedings are initiated through the service of NOC or the acceptance of VOS, we must forge ahead and complete what we have initiated. And please note that nothing in the law states that support services and agrarian justice delivery should stop on 30 June 2014. Fortunately, Congress and a major part of the civil society also accept this position. With Respect to the 2015 Budget Last 30 July 2014, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) submitted the 2015 National Expenditure Program (NEP) to the House of Representatives, a copy of which was posted in the DBM website. If you get to scrutinize the 2015 NEP, you may notice that the budget for Landowners Compensation and for support services was trimmed down as compared to last year’s budget. Let me assure you that this does not mean that LAD and support services are given less priority. There are those who will, for various reasons and motives, point to this as a sign that the government is not serious about agrarian reform or that this government is about to close down the DAR. This is simply not true. A. Landowners’ Compensation The budget for the cash portion of Landowners (LO) Compensation was decreased because the Land Bank still has sufficient cash on hand for this purpose plus there are still the unreleased appropriations for the Agrarian Reform Fund for LO Compensation from the 2012, 2013 and 2014 General Appropriations Acts.[1] As of June 2014, the Land Bank has a PhP 6.6 billion cash balance for LO compensation. In addition there is still a total of PhP 12.5 billion appropriated in the 2012, 2013, and 2014 GAAs. Moreover, Section 63 of the CARP Law (R.A. No. 6657) as amended by Section 21 of the CARPER law (R.A. No. 9700) also allows the government to add to the Landowners compensation fund from the unprogrammed funds in case the Agrarian Reform Fund gets depleted. There has been NO reduction in our budget for LAD and other LTI activities. B. Support Services Similarly, the funds for support services of DAR have been decreased considering that we still have unutilized funds from the 2013[2] and 2014 budget. These remaining funds, together with that proposed in the 2015 NEP would be enough to fund our projects, activities, and programs on Program Beneficiaries Development for the remaining months of this year and for the next year. Let us not lose sight of the fact that support services for ARBs can also be provided by other government agencies. We are not the only government institution helping ARBs. Many of the support for farmers provided by the Department of Agriculture do not distinguish between ARB and non-ARB farmers. Irrigation canals, for example, will provide water to farms on its path, regardless of whether these are ARB or non-ARB lands. The DAR is supposed to work, and will work, hand in hand with the other government institutions, such as the Department of Agriculture, in supporting ARBs. We are not a one-person, or in this case, a one-agency, team. In setting our priorities, let us remember that our primary mandate is to serve the ARBs. All our projects, activities, and programs are geared towards this. There are many things we want to do to benefit the ARBs. The government however has limited resources which it needs to maximize. Therefore it puts premium on how efficiently and effectively program funds are used. The government thus rewards attainments of targets and efficient fund utilization through the Performance-Based Bonus. Each agency is therefore expected to set realistic targets and budgets. We must keep this in mind so that we do NOT sacrifice the employees’ welfare for the sake of a misconception that a lower budget means less priority for our programs and for the ARBs. There is no point in having an allocation that our bureaucracy will have a hard time using effectively and efficiently. I will not impose undue pressure on our employees and officials to spend funds simply for the sake of spending. C. Special Provision on Transition In the copy of the National Expenditure Program (NEP) sent by the DBM to Congress, there is a special provision that states that the DAR should undertake the transition process for the implementation of the PBD component of the CARP by the DA and other appropriate agencies of the government. Shortly before the NEP was submitted to Congress, Secretary Butch Abad and I have agreed to remove this. The DBM said it will rectify this in the coming days. My position from Day 1 is that we need to re-visit the current government structure of support services and land administration. While the special provision simply reiterates this, I thought it best to request Secretary Abad to have this removed so that our DAR employees and stakeholders will not unnecessarily worry. Let me repeat the message I have stated where ever I go: - because times change and needs of farmers evolve; so must structures of government (1988 is different from 2014) - our duty tells us to perform in the best manner for farmer-beneficiaries; performing at top levels is also the best way to keep our jobs as employees (and possibly negotiate a better package for those who may want to retire) in the future. Having said this, we shall continue, with all stakeholders, to find the best way by which we can serve our people. The DAP and the DAR In the past few weeks, the DAR has been constantly mentioned as one of the agencies who received funding through the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP). Before I begin discussing this, let me first contextualize the issue. The DAP is not a special fund. It is rather a strategy on how to use the money in the general fund. The DAP is a spending strategy which uses savings from some appropriated items in the GAA to be used to other appropriated items in the GAA. An amount of Php1.29B was allocated for the ARCP2 through the DAP to subsidize the equity counterparts of the Local Government Units for rural infrastructure projects. Let us remember that the ARCP2 were in danger of failing back in 2011 because many LGUs were having difficulties in putting up their equity counterparts. Before the DAP became a national issue, more than Php800M of the Php1.29B were released to the DAR allowing the implementation of rural and social infrastructure sub-projects that total PhP3.365 billion in more than hundred LGUs in nineteen of the poorest provinces in the country. These sub-projects benefitted 738,505 farmers and community members of whom 440,387 were agrarian reform beneficiaries. Unique in the DAP was the Php5.46B cash release for Landowner’s compensation through the disbursement strategy. The Php5.46B was part of the Php7.932B NCA (cash release) covering the appropriations of Php3.966B each under 2010 and 2011 GAAs. This is unique in the sense that there was no augmentation in the Landowners compensation – the amount released is equal to the amount appropriated by the law. The DAP was only used to release the cash for part of the actual appropriations. Concluding Remarks Echoing the call of the President, we should all try to do everything in the remaining 1 year and 10 months in order to solve the problems that we have uncovered in during the past four years. I am determined not to pass on these same problems nor create new ones for the next Administration. I am confident that you will all work to the best of your abilities to help us achieve accomplishments that this Department has not seen in the past decades. Change is inevitable. But change can be managed. What we will accomplish in the next 1 year and 10 months will largely determine the future of our beneficiaries, the Department and its employees. We must, therefore, focus on the concrete goals that we have set in front of us rather than the vague fears of what might happen in the future. Mas mabuting mangarap at magpunyagi kaysa mangamba. I have always opened channels of communication for everyone. If you have any concerns, do not hesitate to inform me directly. Let us move onward. Gil de los Reyes [1] Section 63 of R.A. No. 6657, as amended states that “All funds appropriated to implement the provisions of this Act shall be considered continuing appropriations during the period of its implementation” [2] Which must be obligated before the present year ends
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 13:22:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015