Frustrated by the “gross failures” of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988 (CARL), solons of militant party-list organizations Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, and GWP are set to file what they call a bill for a “Genuine Land Reform Law.”

BY KARL G. OMBION
Bulatllat
Vol. VII, No. 43, December 2-8, 2007

Frustrated by the “gross failures” of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988 (CARL), solons of militant party-list organizations Anakpawis (Toiling Masses), Bayan Muna (People First), and Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP), are set to file what they call a bill for a “Genuine Land Reform Law” (GLRL) or “An Act Instituting Genuine Agrarian Reform in the Country and Creating the Mechanism for Its Implementation and Other Purposes.”

The GLRL is their corrective version of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which is slated to expire in June 2008, after a 10-year extension following its expiry in 1998.

The bill for GLRL, a copy of which was made available to Bulatlat calls for the repeal of Presidential Decree No. 27 and Republic Act No. 6657, including all laws, decrees, presidential proclamations, executive and administrative orders, ordinances and other issuances that are inconsistent with the proposed law.

The bill aims to break up land monopoly and distribute the lands within five years, and to eliminate all forms of oppression and exploitation in the countryside and thereby usher the advent of genuine social justice.

It also aims to transform the farmer-beneficiaries into efficient producers through the institution of an integrated and holistic program of support services that will nurture them toward improving their productive capabilities; increase the income of farmer-beneficiaries and raise their living standard through the promotion of cooperatives and other forms of mutual-aid as the main vehicle for improving their producivity; install the social mechanism and measures that will secure the lands of farmer-beneficiaries from loss and prevent the restoration of land monopoly; and set the ground for thoroughgoing development of agricultural sector and lay the foundation for national industrialization.

Scope and coverage

The bills covers all private agricultural lands, regardless of crops planted and tenancy relations; lands operated as agribusiness plantations by transnational corporations (TNCs), commercial farms, agricultural estates, and all lands operated as cattle and livestock farms, aquaculture and pasture, including those which are presently under various schemes considered as alternative to land transfer; all lands already distributed by PD 27 and RA 6657; lands declared by various Presidential Decrees, Presidential Proclamations, other laws and issuances as part of reserved or devoted areas for tourism development, military reservations, human settlements projects, special economic development authorities, export processing zones, regional industrial centers, or special economic zones but have remained undeveloped or agricultural in dominant use or presently occupied and tilled by farmers.

It also provides coverage of undeveloped lands under military reservations; lands affected by public sector development projects located in the reservations of special economic development authorities, regional industrial centers, special economic zones, where such development projects have not started; lands that have been reclassified as commercial, industrial or residential (CIR) lands by local government units and other government line departments and agencies but have remained undeveloped according to their legislated classification, agricultural in dominant use, or presently occupied and tilled by farmers; agricultural lands with approved land use conversion authority but have remained undeveloped and all agricultural lands with pending land use conversion applications; lands that are part of the reservations of state colleges and universities but predominantly used for commercial agricultural production, or presently occupied and tilled by farmers, or have remained undeveloped or lain idle for the last five years; and lands of private schools which are not actually used for educational purposes and have remained undeveloped or agricultural in dominant use or presently occupied and tilled by farmers; lands which had been tilled by farmers and the subject of their land distribution claims but were taken away from them by the government or the landowner for use or lease by foreign institutions;

Mineral lands, including those with existing concessions and exploration agreements with mining companies, which have been placed under agricultural cultivation or use by farmers or their present occupants; government-owned lands that are agricultural in dominant use or presently occupied and tilled by farmers or have remained undeveloped, including those portions in excess of their use as penal colonies; and all public agricultural lands and alienable and disposable lands of the public domain that have remained undistributed, including settlement areas and foreshore lands presently occupied by farmers, settlers, and fishers for the last five years; and all private and public lands that have remained idle and abandoned and with potential for agricultural use.

The bill also provides that the covered lands shall be distributed at no cost to farmer beneficiaries. It also provides for the writing off of amortization on lands distributed under PD 27 and RA 6657; restoration to farmer-beneficiaries of lands under cancelled Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs), Certificates of Land Transfer (CLTs) and Emancipation Patents (EPs) or with pending cancellation proceedings due to non-payment. All pending cancellation proceedings of CLOAS, CLTs and EPs due to the failure of farmers to amortize their lands will also be declared terminated and resolved in favor of farmer-beneficiaries; and all lands distributed to farmer-beneficiaries shall be issued, at no cost, a Title of Full Emancipation.

On the modes of acquisition, the bill proposes that the state shall expropriate all private agricultural lands exceeding five hectares. As regards public and government-owned lands, government financial institutions and government-owned or controlled corporations, including further local government units, which exercise administration or control over such lands shall turn these lands over to the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for land distribution.

The new Department of Agrarian Reform shall assume jurisdiction within 30 days after enactment of the law over all alienable and disposable lands of the public domain under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

The bill further provides for the nationalization of lands and non-land assets of transnational corporations.

The bill provides that the beneficiaries of the land distribution program shall be all farmers who do not own any land; farmers, including those who became beneficiaries of PD 27 and RA 6657, whose lands are not enough to sustain the economic needs of their families in relation to their available labor force; agricultural workers informally employed in the farm units of small landowners; the agricultural workers of commercial farms and agricultural estates, regardless of employment status; and the workers of cattle and livestock farms, aquaculture and pasture, regardless of employment status; fishers occupying foreshore lands; and settlers and tillers in alienable and disposable lands of the public domain and settlement areas; and farmers who became beneficiaries of land distribution under PD 27 and RA 6657 but who lost their land for any reason shall not be disqualified as beneficiaries of this Act.

On just compensation

The bill provides that lands subject to expropriation shall be paid just compensation based on the average tax assessment on the land for the three years immediately preceding the effectivity of the proposed law.

It also provides that in the case of benevolent landowners, landowners with landholdings below five hectares, the just compensation for their lands shall be the price agreed upon after negotiations involving the Department, the tenants or farmers or agricultural workers tilling the land, the farmers’ organizations and the landowner concerned.

In the case of landowners who are given the option to sell but failed to avail of their option within the prescribed period, the just compensation for their lands shall be the average tax assessment for the last three years immediately preceding the effectivity of the new law.

As its response to the case of CARP where a number of agrarian disputes have been raised to the regular courts, the bill provides that the DAR shall have exclusive jurisdiction and immunity from judicial intervention on all cases involving the adjudication of issues, questions and controversies, including the determination of just compensation, necessary and related to the implementation of the GLRL.

It also seeks that no temporary restraining order, injunction, prohibition or mandamus shall be issued by the lower courts against the Department in the exercise of its exclusive and primary jurisdiction and in the performance of its duties and functions necessary and relevant to the implementation of the Genuine Land Reform law.

On support services

To correct the weaknesses of the CARP in terms of delivery of support services, the bill provides that the State shall implement a program for the delivery of support services to farmer-beneficiaries. The program shall be based on a holistic approach to human and social development and integrated into the land distribution program with the long term end view of increasing the productivity of farmer-beneficiaries in order to transform them into cooperatives or organizations of efficient member-producers.

The support services shall consist of credit facilities, production support, post-harvest, market access and market, price guarantees and such other services necessary to making their production viable and increase their income. The credit facility shall have an interest rate affordable to the farmer-beneficiaries and shall make full use of alternative collateral systems that do not put up as collateral the land of farmer-beneficiaries.

The support services for production shall include research for the development OF low cost and ecology-based farming technology and agricultural inputs to sever the farmer-beneficiaries from dependence on imported technology and inputs.

DAR budget

Finally, the bill proposes that during the five years of implementation of the land distribution program, the Department shall have a progressively augmented regular annual budget starting with P18 billion ($421,052.63 based on a $1:P42.75 exchange rate as of Nov. 29) n the first year which shall increase by P2 billion ($46,783,625) every year thereafter. Bulatlat

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