Estrella: ‘Historic’ Hacienda Tinang land dispute cases resolved

Estrella said that through DAR’s formula of multiple shuttle diplomacy and the constant holding of dialogues with the stakeholders, they were able to finally resolve the case. (File Photo: Department of Agrarian Reform, Philippines/Facebook)

MANILA – Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary Conrado Estrella III said the historic land ownership cases of Hacienda Tinang in Concepcion, Tarlac have been finally resolved.

Estrella, in a press briefing at the Malacañan Palace on Tuesday, said President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has been very clear on his directive to address all pending agrarian reform cases the soonest as possible, as he believes that justice delayed is justice denied.

“I would like to inform everybody, most especially the public, of a historic accomplishment,” Estrella said, adding that “ito po [ay] tungkol sa Tinang Estate na matagal na po (this is about the Tinang Estate that has been going on for years), less than three decades ago”.

Estrella said that through DAR’s formula of multiple shuttle diplomacy and the constant holding of dialogues with the stakeholders, they were able to finally resolve the case.

He added that currently, a decision has been issued and soon, the department is about to issue a writ of execution.

“Siguro in a matter of two weeks magdi-distribute na kami ng land tiles dito, para wala hong gulo and again, we will be able to forge peace and prosperity to our farmers (Maybe in a matter of two weeks we will be able to distribute the land titles here, so there will be no trouble. We will be able to forge peace and prosperity to our farmers),” he said.

Estrella said that DAR will release a total of 450 land titles to 450 farmer beneficiaries involving around 200 hectares of land.

Vintage land cases

Meanwhile, Estrella said that DAR is also working on resolving other vintage land dispute cases that were passed over from previous administrations.

“What we inherited, I could not give you an exact figure about the cases there at the regional level and then at the provincial level. But in the Agrarian Law Implementation at the Office of the Secretary, what we inherited in DARAB is about 2,300. And in the ALI cases or Agrarian Law Implementation cases under the Office of the Secretary, is about 2,400,” he said.

“They are vintage cases and most of them are about 20, 10, 5, 3 year old cases and I am happy to note that out of these 240 – of course iyong numbers niyan nag-increase kasi, may mga dumadating na bago. But ang baseline ko iyong nag-takeover kami, because I am set to sign the resolution of other 200 more cases, aabot na kami ng 1,200. By tomorrow, makaka-catchup na kami ng kalahati (those numbers have increased because there are new arrivals. But my baseline is what we took over, because I am set to sign the resolution of other 200 more cases, we will reach 1,200. By tomorrow, we will be able to catch up with half of them), we can address half of them already,” Estrella added.

To be able to address these cases with urgency, Estrella said that DAR will soon be hiring more lawyers who are capable of handling them.

He explained that the Department of Budget and Management has allowed their Scrap and Build Program, enabling them to create 64 positions for Attorney IV with a salary of PHP82,000 with the intent of being able to catch up with the backlog cases that DAR now has.