MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to fire some officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for their snail-paced processing of land conversion cases.
Duterte said in speech in Lucena City on Tuesday night that he was dismayed that the officers from DAR’s conversion office takes two years to process a case of land conversion.
“Sabi ko if it takes you two years to process a paper, a conversion there, you are up to corruption. I told them finish it in one month. Bakit mo patulugin ang papel, e di pabalik balikin mo ang tao,” Duterte said.
“Kung nakikinig sila ngayon sa conversion office ng DAR, better prepare because you’re fired kung di kayo mag-ano, kasuhan ko kayo. Kapag hindi kayo natakot sa kaso, patayin ko na lang kayo,” he added.
Duterte signed last year Republic Act 11032, or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018, which seeks for simplified requirements and to streamline procedures in the delivery of services.
Duterte also reiterated his promise to speed up land reform in the country as a means to address the communist insurgency and will also hasten land reform in Quezon, a province with a presence of communist rebels.
“I was trying to figure out if nandito si [John] Castriciones, the DAR Secretary, kasi gusto ko siyang tanungin if there’s still available lands, government lands ang uunahin ko dito banda sa inyo,” he told the audience in Lucena City.
Duterte said before that land reform is the cornerstone of the government’s solution to the country’s longstanding communist insurgency problem./PN
