‘DAR order on agri land conversion to benefit cronies’

MANILA, Philippines — Former agrarian reform secretary Rafael Mariano has criticized an administrative order issued by his successor, saying it would benefit President Duterte’s cronies.

Mariano said the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)’s Administrative Order No. 1, 2019, would fast-track the conversion of lands to non-agricultural uses without requiring the applicant to submit supporting data.

He said the order would deem all land conversion applications automatically approved, as it would be concluded within 30 days instead of the minimum 120 days as required under the rules. 

Mariano said the order of Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones would “greatly imperil the state of farmers and our national security.”

He said the administration seemed “very eager” to streamline the process and hasten land conversion.

“It is President Duterte’s will to fast-track land conversion to benefit his cronies. He will also benefit from it and that, I think, is corruption,” Mariano said, adding he proposed an executive order for a two-year moratorium on the acceptance and processing of land conversion applicants in 2016 when he was DAR secretary. 

Mariano failed to get the nod of the Commission on Appointments in September 2017. 

Duterte in Maguindanao to distribute CLOAs

Duterte will be in Buluan town today to attend the Inaul Festival and distribute land to agrarian reform beneficiaries.

The President will distribute land ownership awards to farmers in the presence of provincial and municipal officials.

The Inaul Festival, which will culminate on Feb. 14, showcases the iconic Inaul fabric that  Maguindanaons have been producing using wooden looms for centuries now.

The office of Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu is promoting the traditional craft by providing weavers with technical support and brokering linkages with markets outside Mindanao and abroad.

This year’s Inaul Festival, partly a thanksgiving celebration for the ratification through a plebiscite of the Bangsamoro Organic Law, was launched on Thursday.

For contemporary historians, the Inaul cloth symbolizes the resilience of closely knit ethnic Maguindanaon communities in the raya, or upper delta, and the ilod, or downstream zone of Maguindanao.

Maguindanao’s indigenous non-Muslim Teduray people have also been wearing clothes made of Inaul fabric even before Shariff Mohammad Kabunsuan, an Arab-Malay cleric from Johore, now part of Malaysia, set foot in what is now Cotabato City in the 14th century to spread Islam.

“We are thankful to President Duterte for his scheduled engagement with agrarian reform beneficiaries in Maguindanao province while we are having this Inaul Festival,” Mangudadatu said yesterday.