There were also cases of fake distributions where the heirs of landlords were declared as farmer-beneficiaries. All it needs is the certification of the barangay (village) officials that the supposed beneficiaries were farmers and the concurrence of local government and DAR officials.

Other schemes, allowed under the law, to defraud peasants of the land that could have been theirs are the corporative scheme or the joint venture agreement (JVA) used by Eduardo Danding Cojuangco to retain his vast landholdings and the Stock Distribution Option applied by the family of former president Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino at Hacienda Luisita. Eduardo Cojuangco is still expanding his landholdings for cassava plantations. While the Hacienda Luisita, which was already awarded by the DAR to the farmers, is the subject of an indefinite Temporary Restraining Order by the Supreme Court.

There are also the Market-Assisted Land Reform and the Voluntary Land Transfer where the peasants are left at the mercy of landlords. And the farmland as collateral program where the farmers could lose the land awarded to them from the usurious practices of landlords and creditors.

When all else fails, landlords and mining and logging corporations use force to deprive the peasants of their rights. They use security guards and private armies to evict peasants from their land. When the peasants become persistent in their struggle, they are suppressed further, this time by the military, in the name of counter-insurgency.

The seriousness of government

The loopholes and problems mentioned above not only reflects the ineffectiveness of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988, it also shows the lack of seriousness and political will of the government in implementing a genuine and truly comprehensive agrarian reform program.

Right from the drafting of the law, it was already emasculated to favor landlords. Other laws and proposals were passed that violate the spirit of a genuine agrarian reform program. Among these are the Mining Act of 1995 which allows foreign mining corporations to control vast tracts of land for up to 75 years; there are also proposals to amend the 1987 constitution to allow foreigners to own land.
In fact, the Arroyo government, which has been pushing the amendments to the constitution aggressively, has practically made the implementation of the law ineffective by reducing the budget for its implementation. The shortfall of the budget for agrarian reform has worsened from P 616,026,000 ($13,984,699 at an exchange rate of $1=P44.05) in the year 2000 to P 4,006,706,000 ($90,958,138) in 2003.

A government which is not serious in implementing a genuine agrarian reform program with a weak law such as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988 is a recipe for more feudal exploitation and peasant unrest. A government which is not serious in agrarian reform with a strong law and program may be forced to make some concessions. But for a genuine and truly comprehensive agrarian reform program to take place, it would need the strong political will of a truly democratic government. Let us not extend the weak Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988. Let us come up with a more effective law. Better still, let us struggle for a truly democratic government.(Bulatlat.com)

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