Agricultural Training Institute, Department of Agriculture, Elliptical Road, QC
March 27-28, 2012
Two years after the passage of CARP Extension with Reforms (CARPER) or RA 9700, President Nonoy Aquino has yet to make significant headway towards the completion of land redistribution. With a balance of 1.06 million hectares as of December 2011, the Department of Agrarian Reform was only able to redistribute 88,545 hectares out of its target of 200,000 hectares in 2010, and 86,209 hectares in 2011. At this average of 80,000 hectare-accomplishment rate, DAR will not be able to finish the land distribution component of CARPER by June 2014.
Apart from this, the official data do not reflect actual land distribution and installation of farmers on the ground. What is clear though is the lackluster performance of DAR, slow-paced and ineffective implementation of the agrarian reform program, budget cuts, and lack of political will and commitment from the President to see the program through.
It is within this context that the Save Agrarian Reform Alliance (SARA) was born. SARA is network of national farmers' organizations, rural women, NGOs and agrarian reform beneficiaries pushing for the immediate, effective, substantive and just implementation of agrarian reform in the country. To intensify the campaign, SARA has launched a series of on-the-ground consultations and assessment on agrarian reform towards a State of Agrarian Reform Address that will be conducted in June 2012, in celebration of the anniversary of the original CARP.
On March 27-28, about 80 farmers, farmworkers, rural women, agrarian reform beneficiaries and NGOs participated at the first salvo of the series of consultations, the Luzon-Wide Consultation at Assessment on Agrarian Reform/CARPER. For two days, the participants discussed the state of agrarian reform implementation in the country and in particular in Luzon, the situation in their own provinces and landholdings, and collectively strategized on the next steps and plans for joint actions and campaigning.
The main objective of the consultation and assessment is to assess the CARPER implementation based on data and information directly culled from the experiences of agrarian reform beneficiaries and organization from various provinces in Luzon. The specific objectives of the gathering are the following:
(a) To present the overview of CARPER and to level off on its limits and possibilities;
(b) To assess the target versus its accomplishment and identify key obstacles and bottlenecks in CARPER implementation in Luzon;
(c) Generate critical information on the real plight of farmers and assess the state of agrarian reform on the ground;
(d) To strengthen SARA on the ground, formulate recommendations around the completion and beyond CARPER and identify joint actions.
Profile of Land Cases in Luzon under the Save Agrarian Reform Alliance
Nine national federations of farmers, rural women, agrarian reform beneficiaries and farmworkers participated at the consultation-assessment. These include the Aniban ng mga Mangagawa sa Agrikultura, KATARUNGAN, Makabayan-Pilipinas, Nagkakaisang Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon, Pambansang Kaisahan ng mga Magbubukid sa Pilipinas (PKMP), Pambansang Katipunan ng Makabayang Magbubukid (PKMM), Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (PAKISAMA), Pambansang Koalisyon ng mga Kababaihan sa Kanayunan, PARAGOS-Pilipinas.
They brought forward a total of 46 cases in 13 provinces from Central Luzon (Bataan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizacaya, Aurora, Zambales), Southern Tagalog (Quezon, Laguna, Rizal, Batangas) at Northern Isabela (Isabela). The cases comprise "multiple cases", which involve various interrelated problems in the implementation of agrarian reform.
The 46 cases cover 58,101.87 hectares of land or 39 percent of DAR's land distribution backlog for Luzon which is 149,133 hectares. This is a significant figure not only in terms of scope but also the number of provinces where SARA members are present.
On the other hand, 3,230 agrarian reform beneficiaries/farmers (ARBs) are affected, which comprise 15 percent of the total ARB target of DAR for Luzon.
|
Regions |
Land Coverage (in hectares) |
Affected Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries |
|
Central Luzon |
42,555.87 |
10,095 |
|
Southern Tagalog and Northern Luzon |
15,546.00 |
3,230 |
|
Total |
58,101.87 |
13,325 |
|
DAR’s official land distribution backlog for Luzon (except Bicol) as of December 2011 |
149,133 |
87,725 |
Issues and Problems
The participants of the consultation share similar stories of disenchantment, dismay, and anger over the slow and ineffective implementation of agrarian reform program of the government from P.D. 27 to CARP, then CARPER. The following represents the common issues and problems that farmers from Northern, Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog face:
• Slow/snail-paced and ineffective land distribution. While there is a high accomplishment rate in the three regions, there are still a huge number of landholdings which have not been covered, distributed, and are in the different stages of land acquisition process. Problems include non-coverage due to the non-refusal of Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer (MARO) and other DAR officials, retention cases, non-installation of farmers, pending titles at the Registry of Deeds, pending cases at the DAR Central Office, problems of exclusion and inclusion and targeting of beneficiaries, conflicting laws, among others. The snail-paced and ineffective land distribution covers 26 land cases with a total of 19,692.27 hectares and 3,633 beneficiaries.
• Agrarian reform reversals: for landholdings which have been covered and distributed, the participants are plagued with cancellation of land titles such as the Certificate of Land Ownership Award o CLOA and Emancipation Patent, "second generation problems" such as foreclosures, legal cases, and lack of original titles despite payment of their amortization. This involves 9 cases which cover 9,227.76 hectares and 6,688 affected ARBs.
• Rampant land exemption and conversion. Many of the landholdings which are up for distribution under the agrarian reform program have been exempted or excluded due to land use conversion orders and applications. According to the participants, these applications are possible due to the collusion between DAR officials and landowners and real estate developers to evade agrarian reform. Land use conversion of irrigated lands for other uses such as biofuel production and non-agricultural use by both foreign and domestic investors and political elites. While this problem only covers 8 cases, about 28,841.84 hectares of land and 2,984 ARBs are affected.
• Criminalization of peasant struggles. The participants of the consultation/assessment shared experiences of harassment and violation of their rights. Landowners have filed cases of qualified theft and trespassing, for example, not only to harass farmers in Quezon, Bataan and Nueva Vizcaya but to de-legitimize their stakes and claims to the lands. There are 10 cases which covers 30,173.84 hectares at 3,060 affected beneficiaries.
• Lack of support services. All the farmers-agrarian reform beneficiaries who finally received their lands have yet to receive any support services, especially access to credit and finance, from government. This is one of the reasons why there are a number of farmers who failed to pay their amortization and are facing foreclosures by the Land Bank of the Philippines. The lack of support services is a common problem for all the participants.
• Corrupt and ineffective DAR officials. Another common problem of the participants is the systemic corruption of DAR officials from the MARO to the officials at the provincial level and even Regional Director. Farmers share similar stories of how the implementers of the agrarian reform program are the ones evading it, colluding withlandowners, and blatantly, committing gross negligence of their duties. It is therefore no surprise why there are numerous cases of conversion, exemption, non-coverage, and an overall ineffective implementation of agrarian reform.
Agrarian Reform Implementation in Luzon: 21 Years in the Making
While not all the participants provided information on the year when their lands were covered under an agrarian reform program, there are 24 cases that provided data. Based on the table below, implementation of agrarian reform for the 24 cases took a total of 502 years, with an average or 20.9 or 21 years, which as old as the original CARP.
|
Year of Coverage |
Number of Cases |
Duration of Implementation in Years per Case |
|
1972 (P.D. 27) |
5 |
40 |
|
1975 (P.D. 27) |
1 |
37 |
|
1989 (CARP) |
1 |
23 |
|
1994 (CARP) |
2 |
18 |
|
1996 (CARP) |
1 |
16 |
|
1997 (CARP) |
8 |
15 |
|
1998 (CARP) |
4 |
14 |
|
2003 (CARP) |
1 |
9 |
|
2007 (CARP) |
1 |
5 |
|
Total/Average |
24 |
20.9 |
Reasons for the Non-Implementation and Paralysis of Agrarian Reform
• Uninspired, unmotivated, corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy
• Insufficient funding
• Stiff landlord resistance, harassment of peasants and violation of peasant rights
• Systemic problem in the legal and judiciary system: lack of access to justice and bias against farmers' land rights
• Land grabbing by foreign and domestic investors for other uses such as biofuel production, and land grabbing by non-legitimate beneficiaries and claimants who are usually loyal to the landowners
• Lack of commitment, political and economic will by the government in seeing the agrarian reform program through
• Lack of adequate and useful information, especially on CARPER, on the ground; lack of participation mechanisms in decision making processes and CARPER monitoring
Prepared by:
Save Agrarian Reform Alliance
FB account: http://facebook.com/saralliance
Twitter: @SARAlliance
c/o Focus on the Global South
19 Maginhawa St. UP Village
Diliman, Quezon City
+63-02-433-1676 (tel)
mbmanahan@focusweb.org (email)
