Consultation meeting between the Department of Agrarian Reform-Bureau of Land Tenure Improvement (DAR-BLTI) and the DAR provincial office in Quezon. The meeting aims to enhance DAR Quezon's database system. (Photo courtesy of DAR)
MANILA – The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) seeks to improve its data gathering mechanism, especially in its field and provincial offices, and create a credible and dependable database for ready reference.
In a press release on Thursday, the DAR Quezon said it is gearing up to enhance its database system through the use of the Operational Tool (OpTool) mechanism in the collection, inputting, and monitoring of the status of landholdings covered under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and Presidential Decree No. 27.
DAR Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer Cornelio Villapando said OpTool is the centralized repository system of the DAR-Bureau of Land Tenure Improvement (BLTI).
“OpTool contains data on the agency’s target, accomplishments, and other specifics, like profiles of landowners and agrarian reform beneficiaries, location, and the number of hectares covered by the program, among others,” Villapando said.
He said through the system, DAR field offices are provided with daily up-to-date reports coming from the central, regional and provincial offices.
The reports, Villapando said, help them improve the analysis and decision-making of the DAR management.
He said the central office collaborates with the DAR field offices nationwide “to closely monitor the progress of each task so that we could create valid and accurate data to improve the overall efficiency of the DAR operations”.
Meanwhile, BLTI OIC-Assistant Director Elizabeth Villapando said she discussed with DAR Quezon the preparation of a five-year DAR indicative plan, including the need to provide complete and reliable supporting data.
She said agrarian reform beneficiary profiles, the target set every year, and the activity milestones reached by a landholding, may all be saved using the OpTool system.
“We saw the need to talk with the field personnel, to ramp up our collective efforts and better harmonize actions at different levels, particularly in data gathering and reporting of land acquisition and distribution targets and accomplishments,” she said. (PNA)
