Monitoring of the DAR Budget

With the signing of the CARP Extension with Reforms bill by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last 07 August 2009, the program has been extended for five years. With Republic Act 9700, or the act to strengthen CARP, the program will be appropriated with PhP150 billion to support land acquisition and distribution (LAD) and support services delivery. Roughly, this could mean an unprecedented PhP5 billion funds for CARP-implementing agencies (CIAs), with the DAR getting an average of 60% of total funds.

It is in this context that PhilDHRRA undertook the monitoring of the budget of the DAR with support from the Management Systems International (MSI) and the United Stated Agency for International Development (USAID). A Roundtable (RTD) Discussion on the CARP Budget was held last July to present the study findings and launch the policy paper highlighting its recommendations for the DAR as it implements the extension program.

Dir. Aurita Carlos of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC), other PARC representatives, and agrarian reform advocates attended the said event with Mr. Ernesto Lim, Jr., Project Team Leader and National Coordinator of the People’s Campaign for Agrarian Reform (AR Now!), presenting the study's highlights as well as recommendations in the policy paper.

The project was able to produce a Guidebook in monitoring land distribution and support services delivery and the discussion papers on the 2007 and DAR budgets.

Click to view the publications.