Duterte reiterates vow to pursue land reform with or without peace talks

President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday said he will make good on his vow to pursue land reform whether or not peace talks with communist rebels continue.

"With or without the talks with the communist, I will go ahead and forge a good land reform until the end of my term. Wala akong ano diyan. Uubusin ko ‘yan," he said in a speech in Davao City for the opening of the 2018 National ICT Summit.

In April, Duterte said his government will continue to implement "genuine" land reform amid canceled peace negotiations with the communist rebels.

During the fourth round of peace talks held in The Netherlands in April last year, both the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) agreed to conclude the unfinished distribution of land and do this for free for the landless and poor farmers, farm workers, and fisherfolk, with just compensation to owners.

Duterte has also recently reiterated that he plans to place Boracay Island under a land reform program.

Formal resumption of negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front was supposed to take place on June 28 in Oslo, Norway, but Duterte called it off earlier in June to give way to public consultations.

The government's land reform program started during the term of then-President Corazon Aquino when the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was signed into law. It was initially set for 10 years with an aim to distribute about 7.8 million hectares of land to reduce inequality and help alleviate poverty. CARP was extended for another 10 years in 1998.

Then came CARPER—the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms during the term of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. CARPER had a deadline of 2014.

Of a total area of 5.4 million hectares that fell under CARP's scope, the government has distributed 4.8 million hectares as of December 2017, according to a spokesman for the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

Activists say officials accepted thousands of fraudulent claims, and that about 44 percent of land distributed is public, requiring farmers pay to an amortization fee they say is excessive.

Peasant farmers and leaders said they want genuine reform, as the government's agrarian reform program, known as CARP and enacted in 1988, has failed. —With a report from Reuters/KG, GMA News