My Personal Blog

ADVERTISEMENTS TARLAC CITY, Feb. 14 ? Smiles, hugs and love set the scene at the Balete Covered Court on Valentine?s day after agrarian reform chief Rafael ?Ka Paeng? Mariano, along with other Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) officials, distributed certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) to 111 farmers of Hacienda Luisita. For almost four years, the latest recipients of land titles have been continuously pushed out of their farms after being disqualified in the agrarian reform program for refusing to sign the Application to Purchase and Farmers? Undertaking (APFU). According to Mariano, the APFU should not be a ground for disqualifying an individual as beneficiary of land reform. Two weeks ago, DAR released Administrative Order (AO) 1 suspending the guidelines that require farmer-beneficiaries to sign the said document. In addition, the Secretary announced to uphold the 2012 Supreme Court ruling to install agrarian reform beneficiaries to the sprawling sugar plantation followi...

ADVERTISEMENTS President Rodrigo Duterte approved the restoration of the Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) for Grades 11 and 12 in public and private schools nationwide. In a Facebook post, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pi?ol said the President approved the mandatory ROTC after thorough discussion with members of the Cabinet on Tuesday. He said the proposal "will now be forwarded to Congress and Senate and certified as urgent by President Duterte." Pi?ol said Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana presented an amendment for Republic Act 7077 or the "Citizen Armed Forces of the Philippines Reservist Act? to make ROTC mandatory. The Agriculture Secretary also quoted Lorenzana, saying that "ROTC instills patriotism, love of country, moral and spiritual values, respect for human rights and adherence to Constitution." Pi?ol said the Anti-Hazing Law will be strictly implemented to "avoid hazing deaths" and will be one of the measures to safeguard the ma...