VARIOUS reforms and strategies are now in place to speed up land acquisition and distribution, the Department of Agrarian Reform said yesterday.

According to Agrarian Reform Secretary Gil de los Reyes, the agency is now simplifying the process in both acquisition and distribution by trimming the number of working days from 12-15 months to just nine months.

“We continue to look for strategies to speed up the processes and give to the land tillers what is due them under the law, while at the same time ensuring that due process is observed for both farmer-beneficiaries and landowners,” De los Reyes said.

Other improvements include monitoring the progress of acquisition on a per landholding basis and the institution of time standards and cost parameter per land acquisition activity.

This way, De los Reyes said, CARP implementers could track deviations, identify problems and take remedial measures right away.

Besides, additional survey equipment and survey software compatible with those used by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources were already procured to speed up surveys and its approval by the DENR. Negros Occidental alone now has 20 complete survey stations with corresponding computer hardware and software.

“National solutions to technical and administrative problems are being explored to address technical and other issues that delay the acquisition process. For this, the DAR is working closely with its partner agencies, the Land Registration Authority and the DENR in the spirit of cooperation,” said De los Reyes.