Filipino farmers hold protest outside DAR office

Filipino farmers protest Thursday, October 14, 2010 outside the main office of the Department of Agrarian Reform in Manila. (Photos by Jimmy Domingo)

QUEZON CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 14, 2010) – Disgruntled Filipino farmers held a noise barrage Thursday in front of the Department of Agrarian headquarters in Quezon City and demanded that government accord them their rights to own lands they till.

Most of the farmers are beneficiaries from the 61-hectare former property of the Teves family in Negros Oriental province. They demanded that Agrarian Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes fulfill his promise to reinstall them from the land now occupied by the Teves family.

They said Delos Reyes promised them that they would be reinstalled after a 15-day
study period to process their earlier demand had lapsed.

The farmers are locked in bitter land dispute with the Teves family they alleged had driven them out in 2008 despite the land awarded to them under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in the 1990s. (With a report from Jimmy Domingo)

SC dared to recognize Luisita SDO as bogus land reform

MANILA, Philippines - As the Supreme Court continues its oral arguments today on the issue of the Stock Distribution Option as a scheme to distribute the lands of Aquino-owned Hacienda Luisita to farmers, labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno reiterated its call to the hight court to recognize the SDO as not in any way a tool for land reform.

“For two decades, the SDO has caused the misery and exploitation of Hacienda Luisita farmers. The SDO made them have a take-home pay of only P9.50, forced them to launch a strike in 2004, made them victims of a bloody massacre, and entitled them to as low as one-peso payments as ‘stockholders’ of the land,” KMU secretary-general Rogelio Soluta said in a statement.

“We hope the SC sees the obvious: the SDO is not a means to distribute lands to farmers, in violation of the principle of land reform. It is a means to continue to deprive farmers the land they have tilled for decades and the decent livelihood they rightfully deserve.

“The Cojuangco and Aquino clans staged the signing of the compromise deal and the holding of a referendum in Luisita in hoping to pre-empt the SC’s oral arguments on the SDO. May this hearing put an end to the Cojuangco and Aquino clans’ efforts at making a grand deception. For if the SC will show that it is favoring the SDO, the people will judge it as part of the Luisita landlords’ ploy,” Soluta warned.

KMU also criticized the Aquino administration for pushing the SC to decide in favor of the SDO scheme. Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda himself said that “Hopefully, the Supreme Court will look with favor on the compromise agreement.”

“With these statements and his hands-off posturings on the issue, Noynoy is serving the greed of his clan. He must not be so confident with his popularity at present. He is earning the workers’ and people’s wrath.”

KMU also urged Congress to hold an inquiry into the sham referendum and compromise deal.

“History will judge those who will stand with the Luisita landlords on this issue. When the time comes that the people finally own and benefit from the lands of our nation, the honor of those who stood with the landlords will be burried six feet under the land.

Peasant group appeals to President Aquino to prioritize land reform

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Aug. 6, 2010) - The peasant federation Task Force Mapalad called on President Benigno Aquino III to give priority attention to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and ensure the completion of land distribution during the remaining four years of the program.

TFM, which comprises some 500 farmers’ organizations in 15 provinces nationwide, made the appeal as it noted that one year had passed since Republic Act No. 9700, also known as the CARP Extension with Reforms Law, was enacted on August 7 last year but land distribution has not made any progress.

“We are worried that President Noynoy has not issued any clear policy on agrarian reform, not during the election campaigns and not now that he is president. His silence is deafening,” said TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles.

Angeles added: “CARP has only four more years left. It still has to distribute 1.2 million hectares of private agricultural lands. President Noynoy has to take decisive actions and distribute 300,000 hectares per year if he wishes to complete land distribution during the extension period.”

He said the Department of Agrarian Reform had only distributed 87,000 hectares last year, which is 13,000 hectares short of its target of 100,000 hectares.

“This is so far the lowest performance of DAR in terms of land distribution, which is the heart and soul of agrarian reform. If this trend continues under the Aquino administration, then there is no hope for CARP and for at least half a million farmers who want to own land,” said Angeles.

“However, we still hope that President Noynoy is true to his word that the common Filipino is his boss. We hope that he also considers the poor farmers as his boss and will listen to their demand for CARP completion,” he added.

Angeles expressed regret that Negros Oriental Representative Henry Pryde Teves had been chosen chair of the House committee on agrarian reform.

He said Teves is grandson of former Congressman Herminio Teves, whose 61-hectare property in Negros Oriental was awarded by DAR to 30 farmer-beneficiaries in November 2008.

However, the farmer-beneficiaries were driven away by armed goons reportedly led by Hermino’s son Arnee a few weeks after they were formally installed by DAR in their awarded land.

He added that prior to the eviction of the farmer-beneficiaries, Teves had requested them to give him time to remove his piggery from the awarded property.

However, it was not the piggery but the farmer-beneficiaries who were removed from the property, according to Angeles.

“With Representative Teves as agrarian reform committee chair, the farmers have lesser to hope for from Congress,” said Angeles.

Angeles also called on new DAR Secretary Virgilio Delos Reyes to make the department distinctly different from DAR under the Arroyo administration.

“DAR under the Aquino administration should not be more of the same DAR under Arroyo. Secretary Delos Reyes should give the farmers a new hope by promptly addressing and resolving their existing problems,” Angeles said.

He said Delos Reyes could give the farmers positive signals by upholding and enforcing the agrarian law in current land disputes, adding, the Agrarian Secretary should reinstall the farmer-beneficiaries in the former Teves land and give them adequate protection against harassments by armed goons.

He also said Delos Reyes should compel the register of deeds of Negros Occidental to issue a new title for the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan in the name of the Republic of the Philippines so that DAR could issue the certificate of landownership award to the hacienda’s 37 farmer-beneficiaries.

Hacienda Bacan, located in the village of Guintubhan in Negros Occidental's Isabela town was formerly owned by former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and has been paid for by the government in the amount of more than P42 million.

“Secretary Delos Reyes is facing great challenges, but he should always remember that the landless farmers are his constituents. He needs to exercise great political will to serve his constituents,” said Angeles.

Implement CARP in Mindanao, Aquino urged

After he takes oath on June 30, the commitment to alleviate poverty of President-elect Benigno Aquino III will be put to a test as nearly a hundred thousand hectares await distribution to landless farmers in Mindanao.

Land acquisition and distribution (LAD), the lifeblood of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), has only four years left, yet there are still 89,590 hectares all over Mindanao that should be distributed to qualified farmer beneficiaries out of the total 1.2 million hectares backlog for CARP coverage.

This is the 2010 target for distribution, according to records from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Central- Field Operations Office.

Oscar Maniego, chairperson of the peasant federation Task Force Mapalad - Alyansa Bukidnon said that the success of CARP is linked to ending poverty in the countryside and would be a long-lasting legacy of Aquino to poor Filipino farmers.

If DAR under Aquino’s administration shall achieve its target before this year ends, Maniego will be one of the beneficiaries in Bukidnon province which has pending LAD balance of 7,761 hectares based on TFM data.

Maniego said that the new appointee for agrarian secretary must be keen on speeding up land distribution, especially in Mindanao where DAR confronts dramatic statistics of remaining backlog.

“It is our hope that the new appointed DAR secretary will never compromise our future to the interest of corporations and big landowners who will always find ways to circumvent agrarian laws,” Maniego said in a statement.

He and the other TFM- Mindanao farmers also urged the new Aquino presidency to possess the political will to stop violence in the process of CARP implementation as cited in the case of the 29-hectare Arcal Estate in Gov. Generoso, Davao Oriental where alleged goons of landowner reportedly harassed farmer-beneficiaries during their installation. This Arcal estate is one of the 2,624 hectares pending for CARP distribution in Davao Oriental.

They also proposed to the Aquino administration to abolish CARP exemption policies that hinder its implementation.

The farmers were referring to DAR Administrative Order No. 7 which exempts CARP coverage for lands devoted to cattle ranches that is being capitalized by the politically influential Fortich family of Bukidnon on the 857-hectare landholding in Valencia City of this province.

In 1992, the Fortich family received a CARP exemption order from DAR Office of the Secretary on grounds that they are using the land for livestock. However, the Fortich Farm Landless Farmer-Beneficiaries Association which appealed for its revocation at the Office of the President said that this land has been leased to agri-business plantations.

In another agrarian problem in Negros Occidental, TFM has slammed the family of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for its last-minute move to convert from agricultural to industrial use the family-owned Hacienda Bacan in Barangay Guintubhan, Isabela, Negros Occidental.

The 157-hectare sugarcane hacienda, placed under CARP coverage in 2001, was promised by President Arroyo for distribution to 67 farmer-beneficiaries.

TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles said they have learned from a report Wednesday by Vera Files that Ruy Rondain, lawyer of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, had filed an application for conversion of Hacienda Bacan last June 15 before the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

The application for conversion was filed on behalf of Rivulet Agro-Industrial Corporation, the registered corporate owner of the hacienda.

“The filing of the application is dubious and devious. Hacienda Bacan is already government property since the Land Bank had already issued payment for it two years ago in the amount of P42.3 million,” said Angeles.

Angeles added that under the agrarian law, lands under CARP coverage cannot be subject to conversion.

He said DAR had twice ordered the register of deeds (ROD) of Negros Occidental to issue a new title for the hacienda in favor of the government but the ROD had not done so up to now, reportedly due to pressure from Arroyo.

“We have also conducted protest actions to compel the ROD and even the Land Registration Authority in Quezon City to register a new title for Bacan so that DAR could already issue the CLOA (certificate of landownership award) of the farmer-beneficiaries, but we have been ignored,” said Angeles.

Rogelio Salva, leader of the farmer-beneficiaries in Bacan, said they have filed before DAR a motion opposing the application for conversion.

In the opposition motion, Salva said that Rivulet Corporation had no more juridical personality to apply for conversion since Badan had been acquired and paid for by the government, that the application for conversion was meant to evade CARP, and that it violated DAR rules on conversion under Administrative Order No. 1, Series of 2002.

Under AO No. 1 Series of 2002, irrigated agricultural lands such as Hacienda Bacan is non-negotiable for conversion (Section 4), and lands already under land valuation and acquisition are highly restricted from conversion (Section 5).

Salva said they are going to undertake active forms of protests to press for the dismissal or denial of the application for conversion of Hacienda Bacan.

Violations of rights under failing Filipino land reforms

A written statement submitted by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), a non-governmental organization with general consultative status.

When the 1988 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) was enacted, there were expectations that landless farmers would be able to obtain land, which they could use to cultivate crops to provide for their subsistence, and build their homes.

However, over two decades after the land reform law was enacted, thousands of hectares of land have yet to be distributed to landless farmers.

A local organization helping the farmers, Task Force Mapalad (TFM), has reported that at least 24,115 hectares of land, all of which are owned by wealthy and influential persons, have not been distributed to farmers. This figure, however, only concerns the lands under the TFM’s area of concern, and does not include the land that for distribution that other local organizations are dealing with. The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the agency tasked to implement the land distribution, reportedly has a backlog of at least 1.2 million of hectares of land that needs to be given to farmers.

The government’s failure to ensure that land that was intended for distribution is promptly given to the qualified beneficiaries, has since resulted in conflict, often resulting in violent clashes, between farmers and armed men that the landlords have employed. In most cases, the landlords use violence against the farmers, once the latter begin asserting their rights of ownership of the land they have been provided under the CARL.

In the 21 years of the existence of the CARL, hundreds of land reform and farmer activists have been killed, either in individual targeted extra-judicial killings due to their work in helping farmers to claim land, or in incidents in which violent confrontations took place with armed men that the landlords have employed. Such armed confrontations occur when courts rule that the farmers can occupy the land that they are already allowed to farm.

The failure of the authorities to protect such persons and ensure their rights under the CARL are guaranteed and implemented have led to problems for such farmers concerning their abilities to be able to have, inter alia, food to eat, medication for illness, a house to live in and to send their children to school to receive education, while legal procedures in court concerning their cases drag on for years.

Farmers have engaged in marches that are hundreds of kilometers long to travel to the central government offices in Manila, in an effort to get attention. Others have gone on hunger strike, held daily demonstrations, and have been arrested and been charged in courts for holding such demonstrations.

In December 2008, when the budget and the implementation of the CARL was about to expire, hundreds of farmer beneficiaries, land reform activists and others concerned for the farmers’ welfare, held demonstrations to petition the Congress to have the implementation of the land reform law extended. Although the Congress did extend it for another six months, from January to June 2009, it did not include the provisions concerning Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD).

Under the LAD, the government has the authority to compel the landowners to sell their properties to the government. The Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) conducts evaluations to determine the cost of the property that is for distribution and subsequently pays for it on behalf of the farmer.

Since the money used in buying the land comes from budget allocations for this purpose, the farmer beneficiaries are expected to repay the government through a mode of repayment that is affordable to them. The absence of LAD provisions renders the implementation of land reform meaningless in the period in question.

Firstly, there is no more budget to pay to landlords or multinational corporations whose lands are being subjected to land distribution. Even if they are qualified beneficiaries, farmers therefore don’t have the means to acquire the land concerning which they claim ownership. Although the budget for technical support to farmers had been retained, it is not sufficient to ensure that the farmers can acquire the land.

The government, in particular the legislative body, who is supposed to ensure the welfare of these farmers, has therefore decided to use their authority deliberately against these farmers’ interests. It is a common knowledge that several members of Congress own land that is also to subjected to distribution.

Secondly, wealthy and influential landowners have been exploiting the delay in adjudication of cases in court to frustrate the farmers. These also include properties owned by the family of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s husband in Negros province, Jose Miguel Arroyo; the property owned by the family of President Arroyo’s secretary, Francisco T. Duque III in Pangasinan, amongst others. Arroyo’s property has not been distributed to farmer beneficiaries, while the landless tenants in Duque’s property are struggling to claim ownership of the land.

The landlords exploit the judicial process by subverting procedures in regular courts to file charges against the farmers. For example, they have file criminal complaints concerning qualified theft or trespassing. Under such charges, the farmers and their families are effectively being charged for harvesting crops that they cultivate, and charged for trespassing on the land on which they built their homes and have lived all their lives. Such actions are usually taken when the farmers attempt to claim ownership of the land.

In one case, in Bondoc Peninsula in March 2006, villagers occupying the land of a wealthy and influential land-owner family, were charged with numerous questionable criminal offences in court. Although the regular courts are not supposed to have jurisdiction or to adjudicate cases related to disputes in the implementation of land reform, local courts ignore this.

The prosecution service and judicial process has been exploited to attack farmers attempting to claim ownership over the land they cultivate. (AHRC)

Photo: Filipino Farmers March In Negros Province, Demand Genuine Land Reform

Some 150 Filipino farmers from the Task Force Mapalad march in Negros province in central Philippines to dramatize their plight and to call for the Arroyo government to implement genuine land reform in the country. They urged Arroyo to take a firm stand in asking Congress to extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

There are still 1.2 million hectares of land to be distributed which would benefit some 800,000 farmer beneficiaries most of whom are in the Negros province. The farmers are expected to join others from other haciendas from North Negros who are also marching, in Bacolod City on late Sunday, February 8, 2009. From there, the farmers will all take a boat to Manila the next day after a concelebrated mass by Catholic Bishop Vicente Navarra. (Photos by Task Force Mapalad)

Poor Filipino Farmers Knock On Palace Door

Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello assures farmers, who stage a hunger strike from President Gloria Arroyo’s husband Jose Mihuel Arroyo’s 157-hectare sugar land that the Palace will act on their issue. A meeting with Land Registration Authority administrator Benedicto Ulep, Department Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman, Task Force Mapalad chairman Christian Monsod, and the group’s president Jose Rodito Angeles is set next Monday, December 8, 2008. Bello appealed to farmers to lift their 5-day hunger strike as they negotiate. Farmers are calling for the distribution to farmers-beneficiaries under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program of Arroyo’s Hacienda Bacan in Negros province as promised by the President in 2001 when President Joseph Estrada was ousted.

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 5, 2008) – Poor Philippine farmers who are now on their fifth day of hunger strike in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Quezon City have gathered in front of Malacañang on Friday to seek audience with President Gloria Arroyo and ask her to keep her promise to distribute Hacienda Bacan and other landholdings owned by the family of her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo in Negros Occidental province.

Jose Rodito Angeles, president of the peasant federation Task Force Mapalad, said they have decided to go to Malacañang after the government agencies which are supposed to look into their plight ignored their pleas.

“We have been asking the Register of Deeds (ROD) in Bacolod City for over a month now to register the CLOA (Certificate of Landownership Award) of farmer-beneficiaries in Hacienda Bacan. We have gone to the Land Registration Authority, only to be arrested by police. We have urged Mike Arroyo to obey the law and stop resisting the distribution of his hacienda. Our pleas have fallen on deaf ears,” said Angeles, a former farm worker of the Arroyos in Hacienda Grande in the village of Robles in La Castellana town.

“Now we go to the President herself. She made a promise not just once, but several times in the past, to distribute the Arroyo landholdings. We want her to keep that promise. We want her to tell her husband to stop pressuring the ROD to delay the registration of the CLOA for Hacienda Bacan,” Angeles said.

TFM had earlier called for the relief of lawyer Romulo Gonzaga, chief of the ROD in Bacolod City, for allegedly obstructing the process of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform (CARP) in the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan, located in the village of Guintubhan in the town of Isabela.

The farmers also called on LRA Administrator Benedicto Ulep to process the registration of their CLOA in the wake of Gonzaga’s adamant refusal to register it. Angeles said they will also ask President Arroyo to ensure the distribution of another Arroyo hacienda—the 10-hectare portion of the 197-hectare Hacienda Grande.

He said the 10 hectares were the only piece of land left for CARP coverage after the hacienda was subdivided into 42 titles to evade distribution. (With a report from Lani Factor)

Solo protest seeks land reform extension in the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - A Filipino priest, known in the Philippines as the "running priest", held a solo protest inside the Philippine Congress in Quezon City on December 2 calling upon legislators to consider as a priority, the extension of the land reform law.

Before he resumed his daily 15-kilometre run together with farmers, Fr. Robert Reyes, went inside the Congress' main lobby where he offers his daily prayer for the farmers and reaffirmed the latter's demand that a bill which seeks for the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) with reform be passed promptly before the year end.

There are serious concern that once the year ends without passing a law extending it and by including reforms, the plight of landless farmers will hang in the balance; and that those who are supposed to be beneficiaries under the CARP, would have no other means or legal remedies at all to seek ownership of the lands they till.

Although the implementation of the law itself is inadequate and ineffective; however, either not having or losing the legal obligation on part of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the implementing agency of the land distribution programme, to pursue land reform ownership would become even more extremely difficult.

Two decades after the land reform law took affect; thousands of hectares of land all over the country have failed to have been awarded to farmers.

In Negros Occidental alone, a local group called Task Force Mapalad (TFM), said the claims of a total of 11,239 hectares of land covering 134 haciendas by about 5,731 farmer beneficiaries remain pending at all levels of the CARP process. This includes the 157 hectares of land owned by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, in Isabela.

The DAR's huge backlog in the distribution of lands under the Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) claims has also since been aggravated by the needless and the deliberate delays in the processing of farmer's applications, landlords either using their political influence upon the government agencies or threatening them with legal action; and political interference to subvert the supposed to be ordinary process of land distribution.

Before leaving the Congress lobby to resume his daily run, Reyes, also a staff member of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), displayed his placard on which the demands for the CARP's extension is written.

Reyes also offered a short prayer on behalf of the farmers in front of a wall where the pictures and names of the members of the Philippine Congress are displayed.

On his way out, Reyes joined several other farmers who were waiting for him at the gate outside the Congress compound; and shortly after they resumed their run towards the head office of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). It was Reyes' and the farmer's second run as part of their daily 15-kilometre run in ten days.

One of those joining Reyes and the farmers in their run was Reiko Sembad, a 22-year-old student of Cultural and Tourism Studies from a university in Tokyo. Reiko, like other farmers who joined the run, did not mind the scorching heat and exhaustion during the run.

The farmers, including the elderly, who joined the second day run were even wearing flip tops and trousers. However, despite not wearing running gear and not prepared, their endurance and willingness to complete the run was moving.

In the afternoon, Reyes held a mass inside the farmers' makeshift tents where they apparently been staying on protest for the past several weeks in front of the DAR. It is also the place where eight farmers from the Arroyo land are holding their indefinite hunger strike.(The Asian Human Rights Commission)

Philippine Congress To Finally Tackle Land Reform Law

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Congress is set to deliberate next month the proposed extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

The CARP is to end in December, but there are proposals to prolong its life so it can undertake more land tenure improvement. The passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL), Republic Act 6655, in 1988 was hailed as a historic occasion.

CARL promised to redistribute agricultural lands -- in several phases -- to those who actually till them.

It undertakes land tenure improvement, development of program beneficiaries, and the delivery of agrarian justice. DAR conducts land survey in resettlement areas. It undertakes land acquisition and distribution and land management studies.

The DAR also orchestrates the delivery of support services to farmer-beneficiaries and promotes the development of viable agrarian reform communities.

Most of the government funding for CARP came from the recovered P50-billion of the so-called Marcos' ill-gotten wealth; however, only P10 billion was allocated to the DAR, the rest of the money was distributed to other agencies, including P8-million for human rights victims under then President Ferdinand Marcos.

Belgium, Spain and Japan among the countries that are supporting the CARPSome 7 million hectares of agricultural lands, from more than four millions all over the country, have already been distributed. More than four million farmers benefited from the CARP, according to the Department of Agrarian Reform.

House Speaker Prospero Nograles also confirmed that Congress will tackle the extension of the CARP on Nov. 9.

Nograles last month called for the consolidation of all the needed amendments before the CARP law expires. He requested congressmen to submit their amendments so it can be consolidated in the plenary and ensure that the agrarian reform law would truly improve the country’s food productivity.

“I am concerned because proposals are coming only in trickles. We only have three months left and we need to finalize all the substantive amendments to perfect the extension measure,” Nograles said.

“We don’t want to end up cramming and rushing again just to beat the December deadline. What I want is for us to have a CARP extension law that is acceptable to everyone before December 31,” he said.

Nograles said the Department of Agrarian Reform, which administers the CARP, needs funding for such program extension.

“DAR is asking for their budget, but if we cannot pass the extension law for the simple reason that we still cannot find a win-win solution for the impasse on CARP, then we will be providing appropriations for a program that will cease to exist on December 31. Our country needs this CARP, especially now that our thrust is food productivity,” he said. ”We will surely find time for this very important piece of legislation.”

However, Nograles said the CARP extension should not just be about distributing lands to the landless farmers, but it should also assure beneficiaries enough government support to make their lands productive.

“We cannot afford to let the country’s agrarian reform program to fail and just go to waste,” Nograles said, adding “we have to correct or redirect the programs under the present CARP law as demanded by current situations.”

The status of the proposed extension of the CARP law under House Bill No. 4077 is still open to amendments as the bill has yet to hurdle plenary interpellation. Both the antis and proponents of the measure are expected to contribute their inputs during the plenary period of amendments.

The plenary has already formed a committee that will receive and collate all amending proposals from stakeholders through their respective representatives.

“We have yet to receive the various proposals so they can be consolidated by the House Committee on Agrarian Reform chaired by Apayao Rep. Elias Bulut, Jr.,” Nograles said.

Nograles emphasized that the agrarian reform law must be compatible with the government efforts in attaining food security through the maximized use of all agricultural lands.

“The distribution of lands to tiller-farmers must not equate to loss of agricultural productivity through mismanagement,” Nograles stressed, adding that agrarian reform must be just and equitable, both to the farmer-beneficiaries and landowners. (With a report from Romy Bwaga)

Farmers Harassed In The Philippines

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines - Peasant federation Task Force Mapalad has condemned the filing of "inciting to sedition" charges against five farmers from the Arroyo-owned Hacienda Bacan who were arrested Wednesday while trying to hold a protest rally in front of the Bacolod City Plaza as President Gloria Arroyo delivered her speech at the opening of the Maskarra Festival.

TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles said the police originally intended to file charges of public scandal against the farmers but they were informed by police chief Luisito Acebuche, Station 1 commander, that the Presidential Security Group insisted on the filing of sedition charges.

"We strongly condemn the filing of sedition charges. Reading the fine print of what had been done to us; this government has shown its blatant disregard for the rights of landless farmers to own and till their land. There is no basis in law to rationalize sedition raps against landless farmers calling for legitimate demands such as the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme," said Angeles.

He added: " We strongly urge the President to make good her public promise last May to distribute Hacienda Bacan, which is owned by the family of her husband," he said.

Angeles clarified that, contrary to reports, they were not part of the group that jeered and heckled President Arroyo during her speech at the opening of the Maskarra Festival.

"We were at the Bacolod Plaza and immediately dispersed and arrested after we put up our placards calling for the immediate distribution of the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan owned by the family of the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo," said Angeles.

Angeles said they had not called for the ouster of President Arroyo contrary to media reports.

"It is high time that the President order the Agrarian Reform Department to continue CARP processes in the distribution of Hacienda Bacan by issuing Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) to qualified farmer beneficiaries. The Land Bank of the Philippines must now issue a cash deposit in the name of the landowner, the Rivulet Development
Corporation after a property valuation was finished more than two months ago," he said.

Angeles decried the continuing detention of the five farmers as a result of the filing of sedition raps. “The charges must be dropped immediately and our farmers must be released soonest,” Angeles stated.

They were identified as Hermigildo Padilla, Everlito Algona, Bonbon Algona, Noel Estaris Jr., and Gerry Batalla. A sixth farmer was earlier reported arrested but was able to slip away from his captors. (Lani Factor)

Fate Of Philippine Agrarian Reform Law Hangs In The Balance

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Sept. 24, 2008) – Expressing his concern over the fate of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, Speaker Prospero Nograles called for the consolidation of all the needed amendments before the CARP law expires in December.

Nograles earlier requested congressmen to submit their amendments so it can be consolidated in the plenary and ensure that the agrarian reform law would truly improve the country’s food productivity.

“I am concerned because proposals are coming only in trickles. We only have three months left and we need to finalize all the substantive amendments to perfect the extension measure,” Nograles told Lakas party solons during their regular monthly caucus in Quezon City.

“We don’t want to end up cramming and rushing again just to beat the December deadline. What I want is for us to have a CARP extension law that is acceptable to everyone before December 31,” he said.

While he acknowledged that all the House committees are focused in the on going deliberation of the proposed P1.41-trillion 2009 General Appropriations Act, Nograles said the Department of Agrarian Reform, which administers the CARP, needs funding for such program extension.

“DAR is asking for their budget, but if we cannot pass the extension law for the simple reason that we still cannot find a win-win solution for the impasse on CARP, then we will be providing appropriations for a program that will cease to exist on December 31. Our country needs this CARP, especially now that our thrust is food productivity,” he said. ”We will surely find time for this very important piece of legislation.”

However, Nograles said the CARP extension should not just be about distributing lands to the landless farmers, but it should also assure beneficiaries enough government support to make their lands productive.

“We cannot afford to let the country’s agrarian reform program to fail and just go to waste,” Nograles said, adding “we have to correct or redirect the programs under the present CARP law as demanded by current situations.”

The status of the proposed extension of the CARP law under House Bill No. 4077 is still open to amendments as the bill has yet to hurdle plenary interpellation. Both the antis and proponents of the measure are expected to contribute their inputs during the plenary period of amendments.

The plenary has already formed a committee that will receive and collate all amending proposals from stakeholders through their respective representatives.

“We have yet to receive the various proposals so they can be consolidated by the House Committee on Agrarian Reform chaired by Apayao Rep. Elias Bulut, Jr.,” Nograles said.

Nograles emphasized that the agrarian reform law must be compatible with the government efforts in attaining food security through the maximized use of all agricultural lands.

“The distribution of lands to tiller-farmers must not equate to loss of agricultural productivity through mismanagement,” Nograles stressed, adding that agrarian reform must be just and equitable, both to the farmer-beneficiaries and landowners. (With a report from Romy Bwaga)

What Land Reform? Farmers Group Asked

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 31, 2008) - Filipino farmers decried Thursday the government's failure to address the worsening land problems in the Philippines.

“Farmers are not fooled by Mrs. Arroyo’s rhetoric and bloated figures. Such reports cannot mitigate the hunger, disease and the loss of dignity that the crisis has afflicted the rural poor,” said Pedro Arnado, deputy chairman of the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas in Southern Mindanao.

He also criticized President Gloria Arroyo's State of the Nation Address this week spelling out her land reform achievement. Arnado's group said 1.651 million hectares of land and the 600,000 ancestral domains reportedly distributed by the Arroyo presidency under its land reform program in the last seven years were mere figures which "hide the suffering condition of farmers and lumads."

Lumad is one of more than dozen indigenous tribes in the southern Philippines. Arnado said problems of farmers on Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program are worsening and is contributing largely to the country’s “chronic” economic disorder.

“Behind these figures, the truth glares us in the face: most CARP lands have already been foreclosed by Land Bank because farmers are hardly able to pay for the high amortization rates, farm lands are without irrigation, farmers have no access to subsidy for farm implements and technology, or these have already been grabbed by multinational corporations.”

“We have no one else to blame for the shortage of rice. It is not at all topography, it is only because we have a president who promotes land conversion in order for multinational companies to get their super profits while our farmers lose their lands and our nation suffers from the worst state of food insecurity in history,” Arnado said in a statement.

He said Mindanao agricultural lands are subject to the encroachment of agri-business investments when Arroyo promised in her previous State of the Nation Address to turn the region as the country's food basket.

He said some 200,000 hectares of lands in southern Mindanao alone have been converted into banana and pineapple plantations by Del Monte and Dole corporations while millions of hectares are also threatened with the looming ratification of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).

KMP also dared the Arroyo government to bare the “vast” area of lands which have remained under the property of landed families or those leased to foreign agribusiness and mining corporations.

“We call on the president to never again use the farmers, the indigenous peoples, the Filipino masses for her lies, if she has any dignity and shame left. We will not be with her as she has summoned. We can’t let her bring the nation further into any ‘roller coaster’ disaster,” Arnado said. “Our stand remains, GMA has no moral and political ascendancy to rule this government. She must go,” he said.

Call For Special Session On CARP Extension, Peasants Ask GMA

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo gestures as she delivers her speech during the Luzon North Regional Rural Congress Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at the Baguio Cathedral in Baguio City in northern Philippines as members of the peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM) march to ask the Filipino leader to call for a special session of Congress to pass the bill extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program before it expires on June 10 this year. (Presidential photo by Rey Baniquet and AKP-Images for TFM)

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines - Farmers belonging to the peasant federation Task Force Mapalad had asked President Gloria Arroyo to call for a special session of Congress to pass the bill extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles said certification of the bill as urgent would mean nothing if the President did not call for a special session.

President Arroyo on Tuesday certified the bill as urgent, even as some lawmakers said the move was too late to pass the bill before Congress adjourned on June 13.

“The House has not finished deliberations on the bill because some anti-CARP lawmakers were deliberately trying to delay. In the Senate, Senator Gregorio Honasan has promised to submit the committee report on the bill as soon as he gets the data he needed from the Department of Agrarian Reform, so that he can defend the bill in the plenary. But DAR is taking its good time to do submit the data. All things said, there is no time for Congress to pass the bill, unless the President calls for a special session,” Angeles said.

He said failure to pass the bill before Congress adjourns will greatly benefit big landowners who are poised to convert their agricultural lands into agro-industrial uses.

“The landowners are waiting in the wings. Once CARP expires on June 10 and Congress adjourns on June 13, they can proceed with their pending applications for conversion, and technically there is nothing to stop them because the law against conversion of agricultural lands does not exist anymore,” Angeles said.

He said he was worried about the recent development in the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan, owned by Rivulet Agro-Industrial Corporation, which in turn is owned by the family of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo.

“President Arroyo had recently ordered the distribution of Hacienda Bacan. It was voluntarily offered for sale under CARP by Rep. Ignacio Arroyo. The Rivulet board of directors had approved Iggy’s voluntary sale of the property. The First Gentleman had issued a declaration saying he was not the true owner of Hacienda Bacan and that he was allowing Rivulet to sell the property under CARP,” he said.

“The Land Bank of the Philippines was supposed to issue a valuation of the property weeks ago. But here comes the lawyer of Rivulet, Mr. Ruy Alberto Rondain. Last June 2, he wrote the Land Bank asking it to suspend the valuation process in view of their application for conversion pending before the DAR. Mr. Rondain had also written DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman asking him to order the provincial agrarian reform officer of Negros Occidental to cease and desist from making any statements or actions on Hacienda Bacan,” Angeles added.

He said the case of Hacienda Bacan show a clear pattern that the Arroyo’s continue to evade CARP and to pursue their plan to convert the property for ethanol production.

This development came after Secretary Eduardo Ermita ruled in favor of the Hennessy Development Corporation’s appeal to be given more time to complete requirements on their own land use conversion application.

Hennessy Development Corporation, the owner of the contested 124- hectare property in San Juan , Batangas is a non-existent entity as the Securities and Exchange Commission had already revoked its registration.

“If President Arroyo is really sincere in her call for a moratorium on land conversion, and if she is sincere in certifying the CARP extension bill as urgent, then she should expressly order her family to let go of Hacienda Bacan and ask Congress to immediately pass the extension bill through a special session,” Angeles said.

Negros Farmers Appeal To Arroyo

Negros farmers and their families hear mass Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at the San Diego Cathedral in Silay City. The farmers, who march around the provinces beginning Monday, have appealed to Philippine leader Gloria Arroyo to prolong Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. (Photos by VJ Villafranca)

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 30, 2008) - Peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM) has called on President Gloria Arroyo to certify as urgent the bill that will extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) to compel Congress to stop delays and hasten its enactment.

Some 3,000 people, mostly farmers, marched on Wednesday for third straight day to dramatize their appeal for extension of the CARP law.

“President Arroyo should certify the bill as urgent. Some congressmen are making alibis to delay CARP extension. Some have proposed to hold a series of public hearings. All they wanted was to delay, so that when CARP expires in June, they can forget about the legislation,” TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

Farm workers and advocate groups, including representatives from the religious sector and civil groups and the youths from all over Negros island joined the 200-kilometer march to Bacolod City.

Farmers called on the three Negros solons, Representatives Monico Puentebella of Bacolod City, Jeffrey Ferrer of 4th District, and Ignacio Arroyo of 5th District to help in the passage of the bill. (Lani Factor and Heidi Fernandez)

Peasants March In Negros, Seek Longer CARP Life

Task Force Mapalad farmers in Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental march to dramatize their calls for the immediate passage of a law extending the government’s agrarian reform program which will end this year. (Photos by V.J. Villafranca)

BACOLOD, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 29, 2008) – Close to one thousand farmers and their families and supporters marched for the second day in the central Philippine province of Negros Oriental to dramatize their calls for immediate passage of a law extending beyond 2008 the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Jose Rodito Angeles, president of the peasant federation called Task Force Mapalad (TFM), which spearheaded the pilgrimage, said more and more people were joining four-day march which began Monday.

“The enthusiastic reception to the march is attributed not only to its being the first of its kind to be held in Negros but also to the strong desire of the rural community for extension of CARP with reforms,” Angeles said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

He said many of the marchers are holders of certificate of land ownership award (CLOA) who remain uninstalled in their land because of landowner resistance.

“Uninstalled CLOA holders are quite a phenomenon in Negros. That is one of the reasons why CARP must be extended. Otherwise, the fate of these CLOA holders would be left hanging,” he said.

Edna Sobrecaray, TFM-Negros spokesperson, said: “Our congressmen should see for themselves how the people in Negros are desirous to own land under CARP. It would be a disservice to them if the three solons representing Negros continue to delay or work against its extension.”

Sobrecaray was referring to Representatives Monico Puentebella of Bacolod City, Jeffrey Ferrer of the 4th District, and Ignacio Arroyo of the 5th District whom the farmers have accused of campaigning against extension of CARP, which expires on June 30.

Two groups of marchers, one coming from the north and the other from the south, will converge on Thursday in Bacolod City to hold various mass activities that dramatize their call on Congress for the immediate passage of CARP extension law. “Owning land through CARP is the farmer’s last hope to feed his family, send his children to school, and finally break the cycle of poverty” Sobrecaray said.

In the north, some 400 marchers stopped for lunch at Eusebio Lopez Elementary School in the village of Pabrika in Sagay City, then proceeded to Cadiz City, around 24 kilometers away. At the boundary, they were joined by a group of some 150 farmer and farm workers.

Three marchers – Amparo Caontoy, 66, of Hacienda Minakalao; Milagros Estrada, 54, of Hacienda Caridad; and Narciso Canete, 48, of Hacienda Rose Marie --collapsed from exhaustion due to heat and were immediately given first aid by the medical team. By mid-afternoon the marchers reached Central Cadiz where the municipal agrarian reform officer sent them 500 plastic bags of ice-cold water.

Before dusk, some 20 youths, mostly high school students, joined the march along with their parents, who were also farmers. By the time the marchers reached the municipality of Manapla at around 9 p.m., they had walked 38 kilometers. They spent the night at the municipal gymnasium.

On Tuesday, the marchers, now numbering almost 500, proceeded toward Silay City. At around 9 a.m., the marchers stopped at the public plaza in Victorias to take breakfast. Several policemen arrived to tell them they could not eat at the plaza, but the marchers argued that they were in a public place and their assembly was peaceful.

In the south, some 100 farmers from contentious lands in Negros Oriental gathered in Kabankalan City where they were joined by 30 farm workers from Negros Occidental, mostly from Arroyo-owned Haciendas Bacan, Grande, and Paraiso.

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) provincial office in Negros Oriental donated two sacks of rice, noodles, and packs of cigarettes. The DAR municipal office in Hinigaran, through MARO Myrna Mercano and her staff, also sent 3 kilos of dried fish, 500 sandwiches, 4 boxes of juice, and 5 boxes of iced water.

Fr. Robert Cermona of Kabangkalan Parish held a liturgical service and blessed the group before they started to march at around noon. After an hour, they stopped at Barangay Tuoy to take lunch and proceeded afterward to Himamaylan.

Two women marchers from Elizalde Roxas (ELRO) landholding fainted under the sun’s heat and were immediately assisted by paramedics. They were identified as Carmen Raydan, 52, and Elizabeth Balingit, 49.

In Isabela, where the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan owned by First Gentleman Mike Arroyo is located, the marches were joined by another 100 farmers. Some 20 children came to deliver prayers for their parents then later joined the march.

After walking 30 kilometers, the marchers stopped to spend the night at Plaza Miranda in Hinigaran, where they were joined by 70 more farmers. Some 320 marchers from south represented farmers and farm workers from Montenegro , Goni, Lagpasan, and Tirambalo lands in Negros Oriental, and the Arroyo lands, Tunsay, and Manalo in southern Negros Occidental.

The next day, the marchers were joined by 35 farmers from Payao and 10 CLOA holders from Hacienda Dumancas. Before they resumed the march, Hinigaran Mayor Hermie Lou Aguilard gave them 5 kilos of sugar, 3 kilos of ground native coffee, 5 kilos of dried fish, and 300 pieces of breadl, TFM said. (Lani Factor and Heidi Fernandez)

Negros Farmers Gearing For Big March

CEBU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 26, 2008) - At least 5,000 farmers from all over Negros in central Philippines will march across the island starting Monday to call on Congress and the Arroyo administration to pass a law extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) beyond 2008 along with its land distribution component.

Dubbed “Lakat-Negros: Lakbayan sang mga Mangunguma para sa Reporma sa Duta kag Katarungan” (Walk-Negros: Farmers’ March for Land Reform and Justice), the march will start from two convergence points—Sagay City in the North and Kabankalan City in the south—and will converge in Bacolod City on January 31 for a general mass action. Jose Rodito Angeles, president of peasant federation Task Force Mapalad, said that along the way, the marchers will be joined and reinforced by other farmers’ groups and support organizations that have formed themselves into a broad coalition called Negros CARP Reform Movement (NCRM).

“Lakat Negros intends to dramatize the demands of the Negros farmers for immediate extension of CARP with land distribution. We emphasize on land distribution because some groups, including those in government, are pushing for CARP extension with provisions only for support services component and none for land distribution,” Angeles said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

He said it is very important for the farmers to ensure that the land distribution component remains intact in extended CARP because there are hundreds of land cases in the island of Negros that have yet to be resolved under CARP.

“Ini nagapakita sang determinasyon sang mga mangunguma agud angkunon ang duta sa idalum sang repormang agraryo sang gobyerno (This shows the determination of the farmers to have their own land through the government’s agrarian reform program),” said Jose Rodito Angeles. TFM-Negros spokesperson Edna Sobrecaray said that aside from land, Lakat Negros is also about justice.

“In a larger sense, this is also a campaign for social justice that has yet to be fully realized in the province,” she said.

Sobrecaray said the route itself is symbolic as the farmers in the south will pass through the towns and cities under the Fourth and Fifth Districts whose congressional representatives are “intent on delaying or scrapping CARP extension.”

The Arroyo properties in Negros Occidental, mostly owned by First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, have yet to be placed under CARP coverage.

Batangas Farmers To Rally In Manila

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 22, 2008) – Dozens of farmers are threatening to stage a rally in front of the Philippine agrarian reform headquarters in Manila to demand that government place more than 100 hectares of lands under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Vic Ayap, president of Laiya Ibabaw Samahang Magsasaka (LISAMAG), asked Agrarian Reform chief Nasser Pangandaman to act on the plight of the farmers over the 123-hectae lands owned by Hennessy Development Corporation (HDC).

Pangandaman last year ordered the provincial agrarian reform office “to immediately proceed with the acquisition and distribution of subject property to qualified farmer-beneficiaries.” But until now the Department of Agrarian reform failed to act on the matter.

Ayap said the property owner allegedly failed to comply with the conversion order issued on June 17, 1998 by then DAR Secretary Ernesto Garilao. He said some 50 farmers from the village of Laiya-Ibabaw in San Juan town will set up a camp in front of the DAR headquarters in Quezon City.

He said HDC had five years from issuance of the order to undertake development in the property for eco-tourism, including the construction of a five-star hotel, but it was not able to construct a single road or structure.

“The conversion period had lapsed in 2003. Some former tenants and a number of new tillers had already planted crops to the property. We are asking DAR to immediately issue a notice of coverage for the property so that it can be distributed to the current tillers,” Ayap said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner newspaper.

He said all petitions by HDC for extension of the conversion period had already been dismissed by DAR.

On September 5, 2005, HDC had filed a request for extension of time to develop the property, but DAR denied the request in an order issued on December 21, 2006.

In denying HDC’s request, DAR said that: “no substantial development was made on the property, thus violating the conversion order; the subject property remains agricultural; and iii) the request for extension was filed beyond the period allowed by law, or two years after the conversion period had lapsed.

HDC filed a motion for reconsideration in January 2007, but Pangandaman dismissed the motion on August 21, saying that aside from the lapsed period, HDC also failed to meet some requirements, including the posting of performance bond, submission of the joint venture agreement between landowner and developer, proofs of financial capability of the developer, profile of the developer, and financial statements, among others.

Ayap said that they are willing to “walk on our knees if necessary to compel DAR to issue the notice of coverage for the disputed property.” (Lani Factor)

Negros Farmers Favor CARP Extension

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 16, 2008) - Some 200 farmers from various haciendas in Negros Occidental province in central Philippines have trooped in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) office to urge government action on land cases pending under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

The farmers urged Manila and Congress to enact a law extending the CARP beyond 2008 and ensuring provisions for resolution of existing land cases and the distribution of the remaining CARP backlog of 1.2 million hectares of private agricultural lands.

Jose Rodito Angeles, president of the Task Force Mapalad, said extending the CARP would benefit millions of people while ending CARP would only benefit a few individuals, including two Negros Occidental landowners Congressmen Ignacio Arroyo who is President Gloria Arroyo's brother-in-law and Jeffrey Ferrer.

Angeles noted that among all provinces, Negros Occidental has the highest land acquisition and distribution (LAD) backlog, accounting for 180,00 hectares of private agricultural lands.

Angeles said DAR had admitted that the province has the highest LAD backlog because of resistance and political maneuvers by big landowners who are against CARP.

“Big landowners here, including Representatives Arroyo and Ferrer, are calling for a review of CARP before any extension. Actually, they are calling for an end to CARP to prevent the distribution of their land,” he said.

Earlier, farmers of the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan, owned by First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, had called on the government to order the distribution of the hacienda as proof of her promised “legacy” in the remaining years of the President's term.

“The President said she wanted the remaining years of her presidency to become the legacy phase. Distribution of Hacienda Bacan could be part of that legacy,” said Edna Sobrecaray, TFM-Negros spokesperson.

Hacienda Bacan in the village of Guintubhan in Isabela town was placed under CARP coverage in 1996 through compulsory acquisition.
In 2001, following President Arroyo’s announcement that she would distribute the family-owned lands, the hacienda was offered by Rep. Arroyo to CARP under voluntary offer to sell (VOS).

However, the Land Bank of the Philippines refused to process the hacienda's claim folder saying Arroyo had no authority to voluntarily sell the property since the President's husband was the real landowner.

DAR said it had asked the First Gentleman to issue a letter of intent for VOS, but to date no such letter had been issued, the group said.

Sobrecaray said: “Iggy (Rep. Arroyo) had been unethical in calling for a review of CARP when his real intention was to push for its non-extension and save the hacienda of his brother from being distributed under CARP.”

Sobrecaray said members of the House of Representatives who have families with big landholdings should inhibit themselves from the issue of CARP extension.

Philippine Farmers Urge Congress To Review Implementation Of Agrarian Reform

NEGROS, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 10) – A group of Filipino farmers have urged lawmakers to look into reports that influential and big landowners were allegedly influencing the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Task Force Mapalad (TFM), a national peasant federation, also it will ask progressive members of Congress to conduct a review of the role played by landowners in the implementation of the agrarian reform to determine to what extent they have contributed to its success of failure.

Jose Angeles, TFM president, said they would file a resolution seeking such a review in light of the landowners’ sustained call to review CARP and to defer its implementation pending such a review.

“Landowners have been calling for a review of CARP. They have been playing up the flaws of CARP in order to justify its non-extension after June 2008. Now we want a review of what they have done during the past 19 years of CARP in order to see if they have the moral high ground to question CARP,” Angeles said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

Farmers see the landowners’ call for CARP review as a mere mask to hide their real intention to completely stop the implementation of CARP, he said.

“They are actually anti-CARP through and through and they want to use the CARP review as a way of stopping CARP and saving their land from distribution,” he said.

Angeles said that in case a review of landowners’ role in CARP pushes through, they will ask the congressional review committee to summon to the hearing all landowners who have been identified by farmers and farmer-beneficiaries to have been involved in agrarian-related land disputes.

“A congressional review of such nature will help bring to light why there have been cases not only of failure in CARP implementation but also land disputes that in sometimes resulted in violence and deaths,” Angeles said.

He said landowners have been blaming CARP itself for the occurrence of land disputes and violent incidents.

“As far as the farmers are concerned, the only source of violence in agrarian-related disputes has been the landowners who want to evade CARP and prevent the distribution of their CARP-covered lands,” he said.

He said that among the groups that have openly called for CARP review included the landowners in Negros province, sugar millers and coconut planters associations.

Celso Pojas, regional spokesperson for the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, said farmers were also protesting the proposed extension of the CARP.

The government’s agrarian reform program may be extended after President Gloria Arroyo certified as urgent a bill seeking a 10-year extension of the CARP, which is set to end in June 2008, ten years after it was passed.

The CARP is primarily a social reform measure and addresses the need for a more equitable distribution of land ownership. Its end-goal is to improve the standards of living of beneficiaries and promote greater economic activity in the rural areas.

But Pojas said extending the CARP would only exacerbate the plight of the farmers who, until now, suffers from landlessness and usurpation from big landlords and multi-national companies.

“We never benefited from the CARP. Our farmers remain landless,” Pojas told the Mindanao Examiner newspaper.

“The big landlords and multi-national corporations are the ones who have benefited from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, not us farmers. The CARP's distorted definition of agrarian reform and the law's actual provisions reveal its unmistakable bias in favor of landowners and agribusiness. This program has never been a solution to our problem.”

“Most of the benefactors do not have the security of owning the lands they tilt due to the imposition of heavy amortization of Land Bank. While some of us were forced to enter ‘growership’ contracts and leasehold arrangements with big plantations due to the lack of support from the government,” he said.

Pojas said the poor implementation of the CARP is worsened by feudal exploitation as many landlords continue to wield power in the countryside. “We call for the scrapping of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program not for its extension,” he said.

Some seven million hectares of agricultural lands, from more than four millions all over the country, have already been distributed. More than four million farmers benefited from the CARP, according to DAR, which is the lead implementing agency of the agrarian reform program.


It undertakes land tenure improvement, development of program beneficiaries, and the delivery of agrarian justice. DAR conducts land survey in resettlement areas. It undertakes land acquisition and distribution and land management studies. The DAR also orchestrates the delivery of support services to farmer-beneficiaries and promotes the development of viable agrarian reform communities.

The passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL), Republic Act 6655, in 1988 was hailed as a historic occasion. CARL promised to redistribute agricultural lands -- in several phases -- to those who actually till them.

Most of the government funding for CARP came from the recovered P50-billion of the so-called Marcos' ill-gotten wealth; however, only P10 billion was allocated to the DAR, the rest of the money was distributed to other agencies, including P8-million for human rights victims under then President Ferdinand Marcos.

Belgium, Spain and Japan among the countries that are supporting the CARP. (With a report from Lani Factor)

Filipino Farmers Hold Anti-Government Protest In South

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 19, 2007) – Hundreds of farmers on Friday held a rally in Davao City in southern Philippines to protest the government’s failure to help alleviate the worsening poverty condition in the countryside.

Celso Pojas, regional spokesperson for the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, said farmers were also protesting the proposed extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

About 900 people joined the protest, which coincided with the commemoration of the Peasant month, he said.

The government’s agrarian reform program may be extended after President Gloria Arroyo certified as urgent a bill seeking a 10-year extension of the CARP, which is set to end in June 2008, ten years after it was passed.

The CARP is primarily a social reform measure and addresses the need for a more equitable distribution of land ownership. Its end-goal is to improve the standards of living of beneficiaries and promote greater economic activity in the rural areas.

But Pojas said extending the CARP would only exacerbate the plight of the farmers who, until now, suffers from landlessness and usurpation from big landlords and multi-national companies.

“We never benefited from the CARP. Our farmers remain landless,” Pojas told the Mindanao Examiner newspaper.

“The big landlords and multi-national corporations are the ones who have benefited from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, not us farmers. The CARP's distorted definition of agrarian reform and the law's actual provisions reveal its unmistakable bias in favor of landowners and agribusiness. This program has never been a solution to our problem.”

“Most of the benefactors do not have the security of owning the lands they tilt due to the imposition of heavy amortization of Land Bank. While some of us were forced to enter ‘growership’ contracts and leasehold arrangements with big plantations due to the lack of support from the government,” he said.

Pojas said the poor implementation of the CARP is worsened by feudal exploitation as many landlords continue to wield power in the countryside. “We call for the scrapping of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program not for its extension,” he said.

In Zamboanga City, Filipino agrarian expert Julita Ragandang the CARP extension would benefit more farmers. “There are still many things to do,” Ragandang, who heads the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Western Mindanao, said.

Some seven million hectares of agricultural lands, from more than four millions all over the country, have already been distributed. More than four million farmers benefited from the CARP, according to DAR, which is the lead implementing agency of the agrarian reform program.

It undertakes land tenure improvement, development of program beneficiaries, and the delivery of agrarian justice. DAR conducts land survey in resettlement areas. It undertakes land acquisition and distribution and land management studies. The DAR also orchestrates the delivery of support services to farmer-beneficiaries and promotes the development of viable agrarian reform communities.

The passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL), Republic Act 6655, in 1988 was hailed as a historic occasion. CARL promised to redistribute agricultural lands -- in several phases -- to those who actually till them.

Most of the government funding for CARP came from the recovered P50-billion of the so-called Marcos' ill-gotten wealth; however, only P10 billion was allocated to the DAR, the rest of the money was distributed to other agencies, including P8-million for human rights victims under then President Ferdinand Marcos.

Belgium, Spain and Japan among the countries that are supporting the CARP. (Mindanao Examiner)