MANILA, Philippines — State auditors have flagged the Department of Agrarian Reform for distributing agricultural lands to 235 unqualified recipients, including retired police officers and Presidential Security Group personnel, under the government's decades-old land distribution program.

The Commission on Audit (COA) said in its 2023 audit report of the department, released Monday, December 1, that the department also erroneously awarded excessive land areas to 117 recipients. 

In its audit report, COA found that 18 provincial offices of DAR failed to properly screen agrarian reform beneficiaries, as required by Republic Act 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law.  

As a result, 235 recipients were able to receive land despite not meeting the basic requirements under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Some were minors at the time the land was awarded, non-residents of the area, lacked willingness or ability to farm, or had no direct involvement in farming, according to the audit report. 

State auditors also pointed out that the "lack of effective monitoring system" by the DAR's provincial offices on the performance of each beneficiary "has led to the unproductive/untilled lands awarded to the beneficiaries."

"Some [beneficiaries] were no longer occupying the area or already living or working in other places, while others were already old and have no capacity to till, and their heirs have no interest in tilling," the audit report stated.

DAR's "inaction" or lack of a solution for these issues had "defeated the purpose for which the CARP was implemented," the report added. 

CARP was established through RA 6657 in 1988 under then-President Corazon Aquino's administration.

The landmark aimed to redistribute agricultural lands to landless farmers and farm workers, transforming them from tenants to land owners. This was meant to address historical inequities in land ownership and promote social justice in the countryside by breaking up large private and public agricultural landholdings.

Provincial-level violations

State auditors flagged the following findings:

In Zamboanga Sibugay, six minors received land after documents were "made to appear" they were of legal age during identification. 

The province also had the highest number of problematic awards, with 112 cases, some of which involved land already sold at the time it was granted, untilled lots, and land converted to school sites, houses and commercial stores.   In Ilocos Sur and Pangasinan, 30 beneficiaries who received land were neither agricultural lessees nor farmworkers. Instead, they were "PSG Policeman, retired PNP, government employee, seaman, and OFW in Canada," according to state auditors' observations. 

In Davao Oriental and Davao del Sur, state auditors found lands awarded to non-actual tillers, while some beneficiaries showed "lack of willingness to cultivate."

In Leyte, beneficiaries "do not know the exact location of the land" and have not possessed or used their awarded lots. 

Meanwhilehellowin, state auditors in Iloilo discovered that eight beneficiaries of regular land distribution were unable to cultivate the land as "someone took over the land and build a subdivision" and a "house [was] constructed within the land." 

In Eastern Samar, beneficiaries couldn't cultivate their lands "due to lack of personal funds or support from DAR."

DAR's explanation. The audit report included the side of the DAR provincial offices, which explained the reason why some ineligible recipients were awarded land.

The Iloilo provincial office said there were "internal lapses" in their monitoring of the status of their beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the Aklan and Eastern Samar office vowed to review their compliance with the law's provisions on eligible land recipients. 

Meanwhile, the Davao del Norte office explained that cultivating the land does not just refer to "personally tilling" the land, but also "direct managing of the land with the help of other family member." 

Excessive distribution

Beyond these qualification issues, the audit also discovered that 117 beneficiaries under 16 provincial offices were "allowed to own more than three hectares of agricultural land." 

In total, there are at least 72.5 hectares of land that were granted to beneficiaries in excess, according to the audit report. 

State auditors said this "[deprived] other eligible [beneficiaries] of partaking possession thereof."

"This deficiency not only perpetuates disparities in land distribution but also undermines the very essence of agrarian reform, which seeks to rectify historical land injustices by providing land to those who have traditionally been marginalized in rural areas," state auditors said.

"Ownership of land more than the prescribed limit obstructs the objective of creating a more equitable and just agricultural landscape where the landless farmworkers and smaller cultivators can access the resources necessary to improve their economic standing and quality of life," the report added.

Provincial DAR offices offered varying explanations for exceeding the three-hectare limit in land distribution.

DAR's officials in Abra explained that excess land were "baldias" or mountainous, unirrigated rice lands. They argued these lands were "occupied by the [beneficiaries] and their predecessors since time immemorial" which is allowed under Section 2 of RA 6657, respecting farmers' prior tenure.

In Davao City, officials said some cases arose because "land distribution folders are already processed without a survey yet." They would only discover excess areas after land titles were released. 

The Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer added that exceptions were made when "the excess is negligible and impractical to be allocated," with remedies like including family members as additional beneficiaries.

DAR's office in Antique committed "to devise scheme/s to sub-divide the areas accordingly before its distribution," while Eastern Samar pledged to file cases for reallocating excess lands if violations are proven.

Davao de Oro and Northern Davao officials said they would seek legal opinion from the DAR central office to clarify "whether agricultural lands distributed under the Settlement Area are exempted from the award ceiling of Three (3) Hectares."

Meanwhile, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga Sibugay's management agreed to comply with audit recommendations and promised to submit required justifications and documents.

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