Otherwise Maladroit

22 March 1999 Land Reform as Seen by the Peasants

22 March 1999

Land Reform as Seen by the Peasants

The peasant farmers have long doubted the sincerity of the administration's efforts in Land Reform. Who could blame them, when the thinly veiled Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), and its spawn, the Agrarian Reform Communities (ARC), are insults spat at their very faces.

The concept of the CARP (now, CARL or Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law) is itself averse to the embodiment of true Land Reform. The social significance of Land Reform, at least for its possible beneficiaries, is that it would justify the toil given to produce from the land, if it was given free. Not only that, it would serve as a symbol of equal opportunity for all people.

The CARP fails to capture this significance, since the accumulated land for distribution, is transferred in title, only after the completion of amortization payments. Even worse is that the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is clearly prioritizing the amount of crops produced, rather than the number of lands distributed.

The accumulation of land for distribution is also a source of doubt on the intentions of the government in CARP. Normally, land is chosen and its value processed through Compulsory Acquisition, as stated in Republic Act 6657. But most private lands are acquired by the government on the landowner's option to choose Voluntary Offer to Sell (VOS). With VOS the landowner may decide on which part of his property he is willing to give up to the beneficiary, and frequently, wily landowners offer their most forsaken, and barren land to VOS, leaving to themselves the truly arable soil.

Public lands, marginal lands, and forest areas, are meanwhile the fastest lands to be distributed. Through Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOA), the beneficiary now has command of the indicated property. This was all well and good, if the lands distributed are themselves productive. But most beneficiaries through CLOA discover that the land given them are cogonal, and unfit for cultivation. Some beneficiaries of CLOA cannot even locate the property bequeathed to them. Because of this DAR was forced to take back a considerable number of CLOA's.

Through all these bunglings, the CARP which aimed to distribute 10.3 million hectares of land within a period of ten years, has only distributed a mere 22% of its target after eight years of implementation (July 1987 to December 1995).

The DAR has by far been more successful with Non-Land Transfer Schemes than its distribution of land. Non-Land Transfer Schemes take form through: conversion to leasehold operation, stock distribution, and production and profit sharing. Still these are achievements that spell temporary comfort for the peasant farmer, since these schemes are paper bound.

And then came the passage of Republic Act 1778, during the Ramos administration. RA 1778 stated the exemption of fishponds, prawn farms, aquaculture, and livestock and poultry farms from the CARP. Because of this an estimated 6.1 million hectares were excluded from CARP.

posted by Otherwise Maladroit @ 5:14 PM