SPECIAL REPORT

Visayan Farmers, Landlords say CARP a Failure; Urge Overhaul

In Region 6, farmers and landowners agree on one thing: The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program has been a failure. Farmers and their organizations point to the absence of real land distribution, while landowners cite the lack of support services for them and for agrarian reform beneficiaries.

BY KARL G. OMBION
Bulatlat

Still landless after 16 years of CARP, these sugar workers take a respite from slave-like work in this hacienda in north Negros. Photo by Karl G. Ombion

BACOLOD CITY -- “More than mere extension, CARP (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program) needs a thorough overhaul to ensure genuine distribution of lands to the tillers. The DAR (Department of Agrarian Reform) failed to distribute the targeted 1.3 million has. of land after 16 years.  Even those supposedly ‘distributed lands’ were problematic. Many of those distributed by the DAR to farmers were taken back by landowners, with the CLOA (Certificate of Land Ownership Award) and EP (Emancipation Patents) cancelled, or were converted for other purposes and thousands of farmers were ejected.” This was the reaction of Richard Sarroza, chairman of the Negros chapter of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Philippine Peasant Movement) to pending bills seeking to extend the CARP beyond 2008 until all target lands are covered.

Sarroza said CARP is full of loopholes that provide for “substitutes for land distribution” like the stock distribution scheme, joint venture, and the leaseback or corporative scheme which he said is mainly promoted by landlord-businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco in various parts of the country to ensure that vast tracts of land under his control. 

He said Negros is witness to the bloody confrontations between CARP farmer beneficiaries and landlords or their proxies.

He cited the case of CLOA holders of Hacienda Naval, Barangay Talaban, Himamaylan who for years have allegedly been prevented by Jose Mari Javellana’s henchmen from taking over the 144-ha. plantation. The same situation exists, he said, in Hacienda Kiwi, Hinigaran where CLOA holders are prevented from taking position of the land by “armed goons” of the haciendero. 

In all these cases, the DAR and the Philippine National Police (PNP) are ”helpless” in implementing the land distribution, he said.

This means that contrary to the government line, the problem stems not only from insufficient funds but from the law itself, Sarroza said.

Rage

Sarroza also expressed rage at reports that P27 billion of the P35-billion ill-gotten wealth of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos had been “practically squandered.” He also cited admissions by no less than administration officials that the fund supposedly intended for the CARP is almost spent.

“The lack of documents to support and justify the Arroyo administration’s disbursements of the Marcos ill-gotten wealth, whether these were truly devoted to CARP or not, once again speaks of misuse at the very least and embezzlement at worst,” he said.

Nilo Arado, secretary-general of the militant Panay-wide farmers’ alliance PAMANGAS, also called for comprehensive assessment of land reform implementation, and the auditing of an estimated P250 billion in funds supposed to have been spent for land reform.

Arado urged the creation of an independent body which would include representatives of farmers organizations to investigate and assess land reform implementation before deliberating on its extension or termination.

The Negros chapter of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) has also issued a declaration that the CARP was a failure.

“CARP is a gross failure,” said Bayan-Negros secretary-general Felipe Gelle. “It failed to dismantle land monopoly, killed hundreds of farmers and farm worker beneficiaries; and worse, brought only false hopes to the agrarian sector.”

“The chief cause of failure is the government itself which in reality never made agrarian reform a priority program; but instead only used it as a means to diffuse rural conflict, confuse farmers, let farmers fight among themselves – while allowing government banks, landlords and DAR personnel to make profitable business out of land dealings, which ultimately however reconcentrate land back to landlords,” Gelle added.

Call for CARP suspension, moratorium on CA

“Why continue the government comprehensive agrarian reform program especially in the sugar lands when it is already a gross failure?” commented Mario Villanueva, chairman of the Negros chapter of the Coalition of Landowners of the Philippines (CLP). “It will only create more problems and violence.”

Villanueva, in an interview with Bulatlat, said CARP implementation particularly in sugar lands has not succeeded due unacceptable land valuations, erroneous identification of agrarian beneficiaries, and lack of support services for the beneficiaries and the landowners who offered their lands for sale to the government.

“For the past 15 years or so, land reform implementation in Negros has not been beneficial to both affected landowners and the farm workers themselves because of the basic failure of the government to clarify its policies and implementing guidelines, short-cutting of procedures by DAR personnel, and the absence of support services,” Villanueva said.

Villanueva also noted that in many cases, the DAR people, in cahoots with some “questionable” non-government organizations (NGOs), and sometimes with the backing of local police and the Regional Mobile Group (RMG) – a special strike force of the PNP – would install farmer-beneficiaries who are not from the hacienda, so violence would usually ensue.

Villanueva stressed that in terms of support services the government and the DAR has also failed them and the farmers. “The government thinks that their task is over after they have taken the lands from us and distributed them to the farm workers; what they failed to do is to ensure that the beneficiaries would have the capacity in terms of financial and technology to transform their lands into productive and profitable venture,” he charged.

Villanueva said the CLP is against the extension of CARP beyond 2008. But if it is ever continued by the government, he said, they would call for its comprehensive review first, especially its objective, content, procedures and policies through public consultations.

He said they would also call for the moratorium on the implementation of compulsory acquisition (CA), which he said, will give time for the government to review and correct its loopholes.

Sonny Coscolluela, mayor of Murcia, Negros Occidental echoed the sentiments of a number of big landowners and sugar producers, saying they are also for land reform but the government should do rectify some of its measures and “do things right.”

“Review CARP first”

In a public consultation-hearing called by the House Committee on Agrarian Reform in coordination with the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation (PLCPD) in Iloilo City last week, both foes and friends of the CARP in Western Visayas urged the government to conduct immediate and comprehensive assessment of its implementation and also the resolution of key issues before tackling whether to terminate or extend the program after it expires in 2008.

Despite the relatively positive assessment of achievements and challenges given by officials of DAR-Region 6, most of the over 250 multi-sectoral participants who attended the land reform and rural development policy consultation and public hearing believed that CARP is a gross failure.

Several farmers and landowners said that unless fully explained in a comprehensive performance audit or assessment, and given corresponding solutions, the problems for the past 16 years or so would keep on recurring and could breed more conflict.

Rep. Mario Aguja of Akbayan Citizens Party, a member of the House Committee on Agrarian Reform, said the public consultation and hearing are important in knowing the actual experiences, sentiments and proposals of various sectors: the agrarian reform beneficiaries, the landowners, and other stakeholders in the program.

Aguja, author of House Bill No. 5743 that calls for CARP extension without due date, stressed that before extension the program should first be “reviewed comprehensively” in order to correct serious orientational, administrative and operational components of the program.

On the other hand, HB 5698 authored by Rep. Abraham Mitra aims for the amendment of the CARP, calling for an additional P50-billion funding and an extension of only five years.

“CARP review OK, but address key issues”

Rep. Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis (Toilibg Masses) Partylist agreed with Aguja in calling for the comprehensive assessment first of CARP, addressing its numerous loopholes and problem areas, technicalities, before proceeding to the issue of extension or termination.

“There are so much issues to be tackled – among the most critical are how much land is really up for coverage because DAR targets keep on changing over time, and whether non-land distribution schemes such as the stock distribution option, leaseback scheme, and the joint venture agreement would still be allowed or not,” said Mariano.

Mariano said that beyond identification of legitimate agrarian beneficiaries, land valuation, and support services, the issues he mentioned are even more important because they are the conditions that breed evasion and conflict.

Rep. Ferjenel Biron of the Fourth District of Iloilo said political will is essential to the implementation of any law, including the CARP.

He said the reason CARP has been viewed as a failure is the fact that its key implementers seem to have been lacking in political will to truly enforce the law and make a difference in the lives of the marginal sectors.

DAR also pushes CARP extension

Still, as far as the DAR is concerned, there is no stopping agrarian reform despite its weaknesses, or all its achievements after 16 years of CARP implementation would only be squandered, and rising opportunities for the agrarian reform beneficiaries would be thrown away.

DAR 6 Regional Director Alexis Arsenal said that the department is for CARP extension, but added that they do not want “accelerating CARP for its completion” nor to simply complete it in five years; what they want, he said, is to accelerate it and make it truly sustainable.

Arsenal welcomed the demand of farmers and landowners to review the CARP provided the stakeholders agree on the parameters based on the law.

As of end-September 2006, Arsenal said, DAR 6 reported that CLOAs and EPs have been given to 219,810 agrarian reform beneficiaries, covering 349,404 has, and ensured the security of tenure of 77,033 beneficiaries in 89,430 has. through 85,721 leasehold contracts.

DAR disclosed it has accomplished 76 percent of its land distribution goals, or a total of 349,404 has. out of a 462,317-ha. working scope, and a balance of 24 percent or 112,913 has.

Of the provinces within the jurisdiction of DAR Region 6, Antique ranked no. 1 in land distribution accomplishments with 98 percent – followed by Aklan with 93 percent, Guimaras with 92 percent, Iloilo with 88 percent, Capiz with 85 percent, and Negros Occidental with 63 percent.

It also stated that it has resolved 65,781 agrarian cases, and extended loan assistance of P193 million to beneficiaries production and income-generating projects, and established 152 agrarian reform communities (ARCs) in 101 municipalities and 360 barangays (villages). Bulatlat

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