The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) will distribute 800,000 land titles to agrarian reform beneficiaries before the end of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s term.
According to DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III, the President’s marching orders are to distribute all the land to help the farmers who need it.
“‘Consume it, distribute it all’ that was the mandate of the President,” Estrella said.
In 2023, Marcos signed Republic Act 11953, or the New Agrarian Emancipation Act, easing the plight of farmers who have unpaid amortizations and interest.
Initially, over one million hectares of land is set to be distributed but Estrella said some of them still have pending cases in courts.
“We can’t give out the rest [of the lands] because they have pending cases in the courts. So while we wait for that, we can’t give them the land,” he said.