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)

Farmers Hold Picket In Central Philippines

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 5, 2008) - Filipino Farmers demanding government action on several long-pending land cases have laid “siege” Tuesday on the provincial office here of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and painted its gates with the notice: “Closed until further reforms.”

“We are declaring the office of the DAR closed until further reforms,” said Jose Rodito Angeles, president of Task Force Mapalad, during a symbolic “shutdown” ceremony outside the gates, which gave way to the onrush of protesting farmers, prompting the security guards to fire warning shots.

Angeles said that DAR had stopped processing the pending land cases after the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) expired last June.

“DAR has become a warehouse of non-performing assets. No matter what we do, despite our repeated pleas and protests, and despite the fact that the CARP process can still continue until the end of this year, the DAR simply ignored our demand for installation of farmers who have been holders of Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) and for protection of farmer-beneficiaries (FB) who are being harassed, threatened and evicted by former hacienda owners,” Angeles said in a statement.

Among the pending land cases which the TFM farmers want DAR to immediately resolve are the generation and issuance of CLOA for FBs of Hacienda Bacan in the village of Guintubhan, Isabela; the installation and protection of FBs in Hacienda Canaan in the village of Mabini, Cadiz City; and protection of FBs in Hacienda Victoria in the village of Camangcang, Isabela, among others.

Angeles said that the 155-hectare Hacienda Bacan, owned by the family of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, had long been valued by the Land Bank of the Philippines but the bank, for unexplained reasons, had refused to issue a certificate of cash deposit in favor of the landowner.

TFM had earlier demanded that DAR already proceed with the generation and issuance of CLOA for FBs of the Arroyo-owned hacienda in view of Land Bank’s non-compliance with DAR’s repeated order for issuance of certificate of deposit.

In the case of the 533-hectare Hacienda Canaan and the 133-hectare Hacienda Victoria, the farmers are waiting for installation and are being subjected to harassment and intimidation from armed men who are either alleged members of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army (in the case of Hacienda Victoria) or the Philippine Army soldiers and hacienda security guards (in the case of Hacienda Canaan).

Last week, the farmers padlocked the DAR office in a show of protest, but TFM-Negros spokesperson Edna Sobrecaray said: “We are now sending the message that we will go on protesting, we will not stop protesting, CARP or no CARP, until our just demands are met.”

Sobrecaray added: “We know that DAR cannot and will not anymore pursue its CARP mandate. We cannot hope from this agency now because it has become hostage to the power politics of influential people in government. Malacañang and its allies are stalling and waiting for 2008 to end to finally kill CARP, but we will go on with the struggle for land even beyond 2008.”

In Manila, peasants were also protesting the government's failure to grant them the lands they till. Six of the farmers are in hunger strike, but one of them collapsed recently and rushed to hospital. (With a report from Lani Factor)

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)

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.