President Marcos to finish agriculture reform program before term ends

MANILA, Philippines — The government’s agrarian reform program, which President Marcos said was an “unfinished battle” of his late father, would be finished before the end of his term  in 2028. 

Speaking during the distribution of land titles to 3,184 agrarian reform beneficiaries in Agusan del Sur yesterday, the President also gave assurance that the government would look for permanent solutions to agrarian issues.

 “Agrarian reform remains an unrealized dream because the emancipation of farmers does not end with the receipt of titles declaring ownership of the land they are already tilling,” the President said. “They must be unshackled from debt, freed from high cost of inputs and relieved of constraints that impoverish them.”

 On his 65th birthday on Sept. 13, 2022, Marcos issued Executive Order (EO) 4, imposing a one-year moratorium on amortization and interest payments of agrarian reform beneficiaries. 

Saying EO 4 is a temporary solution to farmers’ problems, Marcos signed Republic Act 11953 or the New Agrarian Emancipation Act in July last year. The law is seen to benefit more than 600,000 farmers nationwide. 

 “Although we consider this as a victory, our fight is not yet over. I aspire to finish the distribution of land covered by the agrarian reform program before my term ends,” the President said.

The President said the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) distributed more than 90,000 land titles last year, almost double the original target of 50,000 titles. 

Marcos said the agrarian reform program was initiated by his father along with former DAR secretary Conrado Estrella Sr., the grandfather of incumbent DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III.

”Our ancestors will haunt us if we don’t finish what they started,” the President said.