THE ATENEANS for Agrarian Reform Movement (Afarm) wants faster action from the government on the complete and effective implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Signed in 1986, CARP mandates the implementation of agrarian reform in the country. It was extended for five more years through the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (Carper) Law signed in 2009.

Despite the agrarian reform law being in its 26th year, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has yet to distribute 800,000 hectares of land to farmer beneficiaries as of February this year, 206,000 hectares of which are left without Notices of Coverage (NOCs).

The NOC is a document that starts the land acquisition and distribution process, and ensures that it continues even after the June 30 expiration of Carper.

However, Afarm Chair Ace Dela Cruz said that even with NOCs, it is still unclear when exactly will the farmers receive the lands and support services they are entitled to.

“I believe that what the government lacks is not time. What they lack is political will to complete and continue the distribution of lands that our Filipino farmers have been waiting for 26 years now,” he said.

Dela Cruz noted that the DAR under the current administration has the lowest performance in terms of land distribution.

According to a document released by Afarm with its affiliate, Save Agrarian Reform Alliance (SARA), DAR was only able to distribute 314,422 hectares of land from July 201o to June 2013. The said number is roughly 26% of the 1.2 million hectare CARP balance at the onset of President Benigno Aquino III’s administration.

Dela Cruz said that CARP “still serves as the country’s litmus test to social justice and sustainable development” despite being the longest-running land reform program of the government.

Manifesto

Afarm released a document on its official Facebook page titled “Laban Lupa, Laban Buhay: A youth manifesto to stop land grabbing and save land reform in the Philippines” on May 31.

The manifesto called on different youth leaders and organizations to be signatories as well as to join Afarm and Buklod Atenista in their fight with the farmers.

Buklod Atenista is the alliance of student governments from all Ateneo universities in the country, namely Ateneo de Davao, Ateneo de Manila, Ateneo de Naga, Ateneo de Zamboanga and Xavier-Ateneo de Cagayan.

The manifesto also appealed to Aquino to certify as “urgent” the passing of a law that will allow for the continuation of CARP’s land distribution component until its completion even after the deadline.

It urged the legislators in the Senate and the House of Representatives to ensure the passing of the said law in Congress.

However, if the law is not ratified before the deadline, signatories of the manifesto will appeal to the president to issue an Executive Order with the same terms instead.

According to the manifesto, Afarm’s demands are  in accordance with the 1987 Philippine Constitution’s mandate that the government should “encourage and undertake the just distribution of all agricultural lands.”

In an interview with The GUIDON on May 21, Dela Cruz said that Afarm is currently drafting a signature petition that will be specifically addressed to Aquino.

Beyond land distribution

Although Afarm focuses on the impending expiration of Carper, the movement’s advocacies go beyond this initiative. According to Dela Cruz, these advocacies include “land grabbing, illegal land conversion [and] agrarian-related violence—or example, the continuous killings of farmers and indigenous people.”

On May 7, Afarm released a statement on the murder of 58-year-old Menelao “Ka-Melon” Barcia who was a farmer-leader in his hometown of Porac, Pampanga.

According to the statement, Ka-Melon was an active leader in the struggle for land of the Hacienda Dolores farmers in Porac, Pampanga. Porac, an “agrarian hotspot,” has been targeted for years by several private real estate companies.

The statement lists other farmer-leaders who, like Ka-Melon, have died in their fight for land reform. Dexter Condez was just one of the names mentioned in the statement.

Condez, who was a spokesperson for the Boracay Ati Tribal Organization (BATO), was ambushed while on his way home from a meeting. The statement noted that the suspect for his murder was a worker in a hotel whose owner allegedly had claims to land given to the BATO by the National Indigenous People Commission.

In light of these events, Dela Cruz issued a rallying cry to the Ateneo community to continue supporting farmers who have been greatly affected by the slow progress of land distribution.

“If we will take this opportunity for granted, it is inevitable that many other farmers and indigenous people will continue to be killed, and continue to suffer in their quest to reclaim land that should already be theirs,” said Cruz in a mix of Filipino and English.

Afarm has also demonstrated its support for the farmers by teaming up with Sicogon-based farmers, who came to Metro Manila to protest to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources about land grabbing cases in their area.

In an interview with The GUIDON, Mariel Macario, a farmer who was part of the contingent who came to Metro Manila, said that farmers were being driven away by the Subic Bay Development and Industrial Estate Corporation (Sudeco) and were given two options with regard to their relocation.

One of the options given by Sudeco was P150,000 in cash, while the other was relocation to Estancia, an option that Macario does not want to take because it is 45 minutes away from their jobs.

“Doon sa amin sa Sicogon, isang litro lang ng gasolina, [makakarating] ka na [sa trabaho]. Pero doon sa Estancia, mga tatlo o apat na gasolina pa iko-consume bago ka [makarating] (In our hometown of Sicogon, we can go to work on one liter of gasoline. But in Estancia, it takes us three or four liters of gasoline before we can arrive[at our destination),” she said.

Mobilization

In order to better voice out their advocacies, Afarm partnered up with a number of non-government organizations (NGOs), as well as a number of student classes within the Ateneo.

According to Dela Cruz, they have partnered up with NGOs such as SARA and Focus on the Global South, which share the same visions and goals as Afarm.

In addition, Afarm collaborated with two Politics and Governance (POS 100) classes during the Agrarian Reform Week on May 12 to 16. Dela Cruz said this week-long endeavor aimed to provide students information regarding the situations of farmers who are affected by the Carper law.

“We were able to spread [the farmers’] cause by setting up a week-long Agrarian Reform booth and a Carper photo exhibit that enabled students and faculty members and staff to be enlightened and physically on-board on the issue,” he said.

“In terms of making the students aware about the entire issue, I think we were able to achieve [our goals]. Although we were not able to impart everything, since it’s a very huge issue, we were able to impart something that’s enough for them to be involved in our advocacy,” Dela Cruz added.