THE DEADLINE for the land acquisition and distribution component of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (Carper) Law is set for June 30. After this date, the government will no longer have an initiative to actively pursue agrarian reform, despite claims by farmers that the act is still far from realizing its goals.
According to FoodFirst Information and Action Network International, out of the 1.2 million hectares to be distributed, 694,181 hectares still remains in the hands of landlords as of June 2013. In spite of this, the Department of Agriculture deems that an extension is unnecessary.
Carper is an amendment to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), a bill enacted in 1988 designed to distribute agricultural lands beyond five hectares to farmers and farmworkers with no land.
Historical injustice
Agrarian reform in the Philippines is “a way to correct historical injustice,” says Frederick Cruz, lecturer at the Economics Department. He explains that historically, these lands were owned by the farmers, as they were passed on from one generation to another.
He explains further that legally, the landlords own the land, as the Spaniards gave it to them during the colonization. “[The Spanish colonizers] assumed that they had the right to own the land, and all the farmers are just tenants and therefore disadvantaged,” says Cruz.
Unfortunately, the government has still not resolved the issue of ownership. As Cruz points out, majority of the members in Congress are landlords themselves, and so have no interest in distributing the land to the farmers.
“We elect landlords to the presidency, who don’t really care about agrarian reform,” adds Lisandro Claudio, an assistant professor at the Political Science Department. “As a result, the lack of political will is deeply rooted,” he says.
This lack of resolution has manifested itself in the failure to properly distribute land, as both the CARP and its extension have failed.
The problem with agrarian reform
Former President Corazon Aquino envisioned agrarian reform to be a central initiative during her administration. “[But] different administrations have different priorities,” says Cruz. While CARP was actively pursued during the Aquino administration, it fell out of priority when Fidel Ramos entered office.
Ramos’ platform was built around trade liberalization, which according to Cruz, went against agrarian reform. The tension comes from the nature of trade liberalization, as it aims to remove support for local farming and let them compete with an open market.
“No president has done complete agrarian reform,” says Claudio. While actions have been made, such as the distribution of approximately 50% of the intended lands, these were done through several revisions and extensions and not through the original bill. While these revisions helped, the denial of the latest extension request leaves great uncertainty as to whether or not the rest of the land can be redistributed.
Cruz concludes by saying that “there seems to be a problem with having a sustainable agrarian reform policy,” because of the different goals of the different administrations.
Photo by Pia R. Nicolas
Calls for action
“When we talk about agrarian reform, this is something that benefits everybody. [But] people are not getting land they can till, and they’re not getting the support they need from the government,” Claudio argues.
This lack of government support and effort is the basis of many protests and movements directed towards better agrarian reform, such as the Save Agrarian Reform Alliance and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.
“The government is supposed to be us. These [protesters] are the government, and they are lobbying their government. I think they have the right to do that,” Claudio adds.
One of the main arguments for agrarian reform involves how it benefits farmers living in the provinces. “The key observation is that the poorest of the poor are the rural poor,” Claudio states. “Give them land, make sure there are services that allow them to till it.”
Atenean support
A pro-agrarian reform groups comprised of Ateneans is also lobbying for the rights and welfare of the country’s farmers.
The Ateneans for Agrarian Reform Movement (Afarm) distinguishes itself as a movement rather than an organization because it is issue- and cause-based, with focus on the promotion and proper enforcement of reform-related policies and legislation.
“More than the issue of [Carper], we look into cases of land-grabbing, illegal land conversions and the continuous agrarian-related violence among our farmers and indigenous people,” says political science senior and Afarm Chairman Ace Dela Cruz.
Afarm’s most recent effort was Agrarian Reform Week, held on May 12 to 16, which included a photo exhibit and signature campaign. The five-day event culminated in “Laban Lupa, Laban Buhay,” a forum on land reform and land grabbing.
“When the Ateneo community speaks—[when] the students, faculty members and the Ateneo administration speak—the entire nation listens,” Dela Cruz says. “We [are forwarding] once again our call to our administration to be involved in [these issues].”
A long way to go
When it comes to the question of the end goal of agrarian reform, the same answers come up time and time again. “[It is for] the landless to get land. Land to tiller—that’s pretty much it,” Claudio says. “This should have [already been done] with CARP.”
He adds that if Carper is to be extended, then more needs to be done to achieve agrarian reform. “A lot of the issues are not with the law itself. A lot of [it] is with the implementation.”
“Here are the positive effects of a successful agrarian reform policy: You are respecting human rights, you’re acknowledging social justice, you’re realizing that there is a certain group of people that is marginalized, and you are trying to help them by respecting their right to the land they till,” says Cruz.
With Carper’s looming deadline, these end goals are a long way from being realized.
Updated on June 28, 2014 at 9:48 PM.
