Department of Agrarian Reform and other government offices at the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City on March 20, 2020. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/file
MANILA — The Department of Agrarian Reform on Friday said it hopes to achieve a zero backlog on pending agrarian reform cases within the next six months.
Agrarian Reform Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Napoleon Galit said the current administration has resolved in the past 10 months almost a thousand cases from the 3,600 it inherited from the previous administrations.
“Kung mapapansin ninyo, medyo mabilis ang aming pacing ng aming deliberation para kung saka-sakali, percentage-wise kumpara sa nakaraan, nagkakaroon kami ng mga 250 to 300 percent resolution, batting average in cases," Galit said in a public briefing.
"Iyong nakaraang administrasyon, hindi namin sinisisi, gawa ng ang kanilang problema na kinaharap nila noon ay kinakaharap din namin sa ngayon – kakulangan po ng mga abogado,” Galit added.
The official added the Department of Budget and Management's (DBM) recent approval of their request to hire 65 more lawyers to augment their present legal personnel would be a big boost to the agency, and will help expedite the resolution of cases.
“At sa tingin ko po dito, kapag dumating iyong aming 65 na lawyers, sa loob po ng mga six months baka ma-attain namin iyong aming pangarap, ng ating Kalihim Conrado Estrella, na maging zero-backlog kami, na ma-resolve lahat itong mga kaso kasi napakaraming kaso po dito,” he said.
“Pero ang hindi namin maipapangako, kung mayroon pong darating pa na mga bagong kaso, kasi siyempre bagong kaso iyon. So, ang maipapangako naman diyan sa mga bagong kaso na isasampa ay aming kagyat na aaksyunan,” he said.
Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella earlier announced the resolution of the three-decades old Hacienda Tinang land dispute, which is between two groups of farmer beneficiaries in Concepcion, Tarlac.
Estrella said they hope to to be able to distribute in the next 2 weeks the 450 land tiles to 450 agrarian reform beneficiaries for the total 200 hectares of land.