Negros Execs Make CARP a Hopeless Case

After land conversions and capitalist-peasant management schemes, a new plan has been devised by local executives, in conjunction with landlords and state developers, to keep agrarian reform forever elusive to landless peasants. Agrarian reform officials, who are supposed to safeguard the land claims of the country’s millions of tillers, appear to be helpless or are in quiet acquiescence to this new menace to farmers’ lives.

By Karl G. Ombion 
Bulatlat.com / Cobra-Ans

BACOLOD CITY – The 16-year-old Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) faces another emasculation – one that is forcing many landless peasants to forever lose hope in what had been billed as a “centerpiece” program. In Negros, however, it is not only the peasants who feel threatened by this new attack on land reform – it has also led as well to the eviction of tens of thousands of urban dwellers.

The new threat is called “Comprehensive Development and Land Use Plan (CDLUP). In Kabankalan town, southern Negros Occidental, hundreds of peasant families have denounced the city council of reclassifying, through CDLUP and a zoning ordinance, 3,055 hectares of farmland for commercial and industrial purposes. At least 2,110 hectares of the agricultural land had been earlier set aside by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for CARP coverage.

In Murcia town, central Negros Occidental, CDLUP is reclassifying not only agricultural lands but also uplands and forest lands, some of which comprise the Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park. Local officials who support the CDLUP say the land classification will turn Murcia into central Negros’ tourist and resort center.

In Bacolod itself, the CDLUP is being promoted in a different guise – as a comprehensive beautification plan. In the name of beautification, some 40,000 slumdwellers will be evicted from the city proper and shorelines over the next 5-10 years.

Comprehensive classification

Enacted by local councils, the CDLUP is a comprehensive classification of a town according to use, such as, agricultural, industrial, commercial, residential and common public use. But organized farmers and urban poor groups say that landlords and developers have had a hand in this: first, to make sure that farm lands that qualify for land reform remain in the hands of landlords; and second, that rather than being taken over by landless peasants such lands can be developed for commercial and other purposes with profit.

Worse, inaction by DAR is emboldening the plan’s promoters and local authorities to accelerate its implementation.

In a picket-dialogue mid-March at the DAR provincial office in this city, Argene Siron, chair of the Kabakud agrarian reform committ and members of the MAPISAN alliance, accused DAR of “so much callousness” and of “keeping (farmers) in guessing game” and red tape. Organized farmers have been holding pickets at DAR offices in several towns of Negros, demanding that the CDLUP be scrapped and that lands already identified for CARP coverage be given to the farmer-claimants.

But Fely Banarez, provincial agrarian reform officer (PARO), told the farmer protesters that DAR has sent a memorandum to Kabankalan city officials to exempt all CARP-covered lands from the land use plan and zoning ordinance.

When pressed for proof of her action, however, Banarez could not show any copy of the supposed memo.

Provincial council

At least six barangays of Kabankalan, namely, Orong, Camansi, Hilamonan, Talubangi, Binicuil and Camingawan are affected by the land classification program.The city’s CDLUP took shape after its approval by the provincial council in May 2000.

The plan is also supported by the Regional Development Council (RDC) VI. In a resolution last December, the RDC commended provincial officials for topping CDLUP implementation in the region. Specifically, RDC noted that of the province’s 31 towns and cities, 26 have implemented the land classification plan.

But organized farmers say that the first to benefit from CDLUP are, aside from landlords, land developers and commercial investors. Lands that are reclassified for purposes other than for CARP distribution are then developed according to use, complete with subdivisions, water, electricity, vegetation cover, transportation and communication systems.

On the other hand, the first to be victimized are the peasants, farm workers, urban poor and lower middle class. Land classification has led to their eviction, either from their farms or from the city center and shorelines – or wherever commercial and other development projects are to be implemented. In Bacolod itself, nearly 10,000 families have been flushed out because of CDLUP, it was reported.

Meantime, leaders of the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP – Peasant Movement in the Philippines) told Bulatlat.com that, in support of the peasant’s protests, they will step up their campaign for genuine agrarian reform and against CDLUP.

This week, thousands of farmers are expected to hold a picket-camp outside the Kabankalan city hall. Bulatlat.com

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