FARMERS AND supporting sectors from all over the Philippines gathered in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) last June 6 to demand the continuation of land distribution in light of a looming June 30 deadline.  Among the supporters were groups representing women, youth and laborers. The party marched to the University of the Philippines Asian Studies Center to gather for the People’s Agrarian Reform Congress.

The Congress was the largest gathering of famers and allies since 1987, with an estimated 900 in attendance. Some delegates from Pampanga and Quezon walked from their respective provinces; others came all the way from Visayas and Mindanao.

The 1988 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was amended in 2009, giving rise to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (Carper). The latter extended the distribution of agricultural land to June 30, 2014. June 10 will also mark the 26th anniversary of CARP.

According to a report from Philippine Daily Inquirer, 14,000 Notices of Coverage (NOCs) for about 89,000 hectares have yet to be issued as of May. NOCs are given to landowners before the DAR can entitle land.

Three farmers dead

The afternoon program was interrupted by the announcement of the killing of three farmers based in Macabud, Rizal.  About fifty farmers from the same area left the Congress early. It was not confirmed whether or not these were land-related killings.

“Some representatives, for fear of their lives, didn’t want to leave near nightfall,” said Mary Ann Manajan in a mix of English and Filipino. Manajan is from Focus on the Global South (FGS), one of the organizing groups. She added that a private developer wanted to take the area, a move that local farmers fought against.

“If you talk to the farmers, all their experiences on the ground are similar,” said Manajan in a mix of English and Filipino.  She named common problems to be massive dispossession of land, corporate land-grabbing, human rights violations and extrajudicial killings.

Deadlines and commitments

“Ang tingin ko ay hindi nga dapat anibersaryo ang tawag dito, dahil wala ka naman dapat i-celebrate (I don’t think we should call it an anniversary, because we have nothing to celebrate),” said Nestor Diego, a farmer and Secretary General of Pambansang Kaisahan ng  Magbubukid sa Pilipinas.“Apat o tatlong dekada na ang nakaraan ay nananatiling problema pa rin ng mga magsasaka sa kanayunan yung usapin ng reporma sa lupa (Forty or thirty decades have passed, and agrarian reform is still a problem for rural farmers).”

DAR Secretary Virgilio de Los Reyes admitted that they might not meet Carper’s deadline. An Inquirer report quoted the sources of delay to be “‘complications’ in the DAR’s database, bureaucracy, missing land titles, incomplete addresses and incorrect classification of the land.” He also said that he backed a bill requesting for a two-year extension to issuing NOCs. President Aquino certified the bill as urgent last June 4.

Akbayan Partylist Representative Walden Bello, speaking on the panel last Friday, said the delay comes from the bureaucracy. He also slammed de Los Reyes, calling him an “uninspiring, timid secretary for agrarian reform,” and said that these “technical problems” could be overcome with political will.

Divided opinion

Those present were divided on their stance of the program, with some believing that the law was fine and that it just needed proper implementation. Others said that there were still loopholes.

However, the groups were united in holding the holding the government accountable for inactivity. “I think we can put aside these differences of opinion with a more strategic calling on government to do its job—its promise of implementing agrarian reform,” said Manajan in a mix of English and Filipino.”

FGS and other organizing groups will discuss how to reconcile the conflicting views during the finalization of the manifesto. The final manifesto will be released next week.

Diego said that he hopes the Congress will pull other groups to support them. “Maganda itong pagsasama-sama. Isang makabuluhan po, sabi nga natin (Getting together is good. As we say, it is significant),” he said, adding that presence of different sectors, including the youth, shows that people recognize how pressing agrarian reform is.

Atenean participation

“We cannot really generalize the Ateneo students as being apathetic,” said Ace Dela Cruz, Chair of Ateneans for Agrarian Reform (Afarm). He pegged Atenean turn-up at the event to be over thirty, with attendees from Afarm, the student political party Christian Union for Socialist and Democratic Advancement, Ateneo Christian Life Community and Ateneo Student Catholic Action. “If there’s one thing I noticed with Ateneans, it’s that they know how to relate. They know how [to] locate themselves in a certain situation, and this is precisely what happened during the Congress,” Dela Cruz observed.

Dela Cruz, who was one of the speakers on the morning panel, added that the signatures of support Afarm collected show “how students really want to be a part of this advocacy.”  Afarm’s manifesto can be read here.

Afarm has also set to discuss the possible measures to take the issue to House of Representatives and to the Senate. “[Today’s Congress] just an avenue for us to discuss the issue at hand with the different sectors,” said Dela Cruz. “This is not the end, it’s just the beginning.”