QuestionsQuestions (PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 980)
PD No. 980 converts the Bureau of Farm Management of the Department of Agrarian Reform into a new bureau called the Bureau of Land Tenure Improvement.
The Bureau is headed by a Director who may be assisted by an Assistant Director.
To increase the capability of the Department of Agrarian Reform in developing and implementing plans and programs specifically on aspects of land tenure improvement.
It provides staff services for developing policies, plans, programs, and standard operating procedures covering (1) land-tiller-landowner identification; (2) tenurial security and leasehold arrangements; (3) land transactions leading to transfer of land ownership to tenant-farmers and related records; (4) land valuation and landowners’ compensation; (5) land tenure research; and (6) joint projects to improve land tenure and land use.
The Bureau must establish and operate a monitoring and information system on land tenure improvement.
Develop programs for identifying and maintaining a current inventory of tillers, landowners, and landholdings (including crops and production), handle transactions involving tenurial security, leasehold arrangements, land transfers and change in land use, develop standards for valuation of lands acquired under agrarian reform and payment of landowners, and establish/operate the monitoring and information system on land tenure improvement.
Prepare research designs on land tenure improvements and develop joint projects with other government offices and private institutions in tenanted areas and landed estates to improve land tenure and land use.
They are transferred to the Bureau of Land Tenure Improvement.
They are reoriented to assume primary responsibility for implementing agrarian reform programs, particularly land-tiller-landowner identification, tenurial security and leasehold arrangements, land transactions leading to transfer of ownership (including records), land valuation and landowners’ compensation, land tenure research, and other functions assigned by the Office of the Secretary pertaining to land tenure improvement.
The Agrarian Reform Project Teams continue to undertake functions related to project identification and formulation; organization of compact/integrated farms; and establishment of cooperative-cultivatorship schemes.
The Department of Agrarian Reform shall not undertake agricultural, home, and youth development extension activities.
The Department of Agriculture assumes primary responsibility for providing the necessary agricultural extension services in agrarian reform areas.
Agricultural extension workers shall be assigned to specific areas of coverage in consultation with the Department of Agrarian Reform.
All laws, rules, and regulations inconsistent with the decree are repealed or modified accordingly.
It is signed by President Ferdinand E. Marcos and dated August 18, 1976 in the City of Manila.