The Senate Finance Subcommittee, led by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian and Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, has approved the Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) proposed P17.4-billion budget for 2026, which will now move to the plenary for deliberation.

The proposed amount is P6 billion higher than DAR’s 2025 allocation, reflecting expanded efforts to strengthen land tenure security, agrarian justice, and farmer support services nationwide.

A large portion of the increase will fund the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling project, which will receive P5.1 billion — up from P669 million in 2025. The project seeks to subdivide 1.38 million hectares of collective land titles into individual titles for more than 247,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

The Land Tenure Security Program will get P9.5 billion to continue distributing private and public agricultural lands, while P1.87 billion is allocated for the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development and Sustainability Program to support enterprise development and technical assistance.

The Agrarian Justice Delivery Program will receive P1.4 billion for case adjudication, mediation, and legal aid. DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III said more lawyers will be hired to expedite the resolution of agrarian cases.

Estrella said part of the 2026 budget will help farmers recover from calamities and modernize through new equipment, greenhouse technology, and tissue culture labs.

Under the 2026 National Expenditure Program, P2.2 billion is earmarked for capacity-building programs to train 325,000 ARBs, extend credit and microfinance to 140,000, and provide technical support to 3,000 others.