CEBU CITY – To meet the demands of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) extension, the Region 7 Office of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is set to hire additional Municipal Agrarian Reform Officers (MAROs) and technical personnel for the distribution of remaining CARP-covered lands.

DAR7 Director Rodolfo T. Inson, during a recent turn-over ceremony here, explained that since RA 9700 otherwise known as the CARPER law provides only five years for the distribution of the remaining lands, the agency needs more personnel to help fast-track the process.

He added that Negros Oriental province needs the immediate deployment of additional personnel as its land acquisition and distribution (LAD) balance is the highest in the region with 33, 000 more hectares to be distributed.

“At least 17 more MAROs will be hired for Negros Oriental because currently we only have 37 and these are not enough to handle the huge balance in land distribution in the province,” he said.

Moreover, Grace Fua, former Negros Oriental Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer (PARO), now designated Cebu PARO, said there remains a lot of workable loads to meet in Negros especially now that the extension is only good for five years.

Fua admitted that aside from Negros Oriental being the biggest province in the region where more acquirable land for agrarian reform still needs to be delivered, a major concern is the existence of CARP-resistant local land owners.

Meanwhile, as an initiative to make CARP extension more meaningful and responsive to the needs of its clientele, DAR7 is set to adopt planning reforms.

Lawyer Johnson Sinco, the newly-installed DAR7 Assistant Regional Director for Administration during the recently concluded orientation and workshop on the enhanced Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation (PME) System of the agency bared that as RA 9700 introduced various reforms in the acquisition and distribution of agricultural lands, the Department is also expected to implement improvements and developments on its planning procedures.

Sinco explained that enhanced PME is a response to the critical data requirements of the Congressional Oversight Committee on Agrarian Reform (COCAR) which is tasked to oversee the CARP implementation for the next five years.

It is also in line with the Public Expenditure Management (PEM) principles introduced by the Department of Budget and management (DBM) in collaboration with the NEDA.