MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte hinted to fire “another set of government officials” as he once again expressed his frustration on the slow implementation of his land reform program.
Duterte was vague in his speech on Wednesday evening at the campaign sortie of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) in Isabela but was obviously alluding to the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
“I will be firing another set of officials. I’m sorry. Mahirap kasi. Iyan lang ano ko if you want to help me run the government at ‘yung programa ko. You know, ako lang ang presidente ngayon. I have distributed almost 160,000 hectares,” Duterte said.
The Presdient – who is implementing the distribution of idle government lands to farmers-beneficiaries – has repeatedly lashed out on DAR officials in his previous speeches for supposedly sitting on land conversion cases.
“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 eh di pabalik balikin mo ang tao,” Duterte said in a speech last Jan. 22.
The President last year signed 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.
The land reform is the cornerstone of the government’s solution to the country’s longstanding communist insurgency problem, Duterte stressed before./PN
