Two years to finish line, CARP caves in to landlords

BY RORIE A. FAJARDO, GMANEWS.TV "Land to the tillers" remains an elusive dream to about 19 million poor Filipinos who live in the farms and hovels of rural Philippines, despite official claims that the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is nearing completion after 18 years of implementation. Almost a generation had passed but millions of farmers still do not have titles to their land, while those who had been awarded certificates continue to endure threats to their livelihood, and lives. With two years to go to the deadline of CARP’s land distribution scheme, peasant groups say this is a make-or-break period for CARP, a social justice objective enshrined in the 1987 Constitution. Landowners take a different view, however. The irreparably contrarian ones “have declared an all-out war against CARP in its last two years," says Edna Sobrecaray, spokesperson of the Task Force Mapalad (TFM). TFM is a national peasant group that assists farmers in the strongholds of landowners in Negros Occidental, Davao Oriental and Bukidnon. Unless President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo demonstrates political will to enforce the law in private agricultural lands before 2008, she avers that belligerent landowners would employ all means legal and illegal to crush farmers’ initiatives to claim their lands. Launched on June 10, 1988 to address the age-old problem of tenancy and agricultural underdevelopment, CARP was hinged on an ambitious target: distribute 8.06 million hectares to farmers. About 4.29 million hectares of these “CARP-able" lands are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), and 3.77 million hectares, under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Republic Act 6657, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law or CARL, sets the expiry of the program’s implementation in 2008. But as of December 2005, government records show that land distribution is about 82 percent complete. Land titles had supposedly been awarded to tillers of 6.57 million hectares out of the target 8.06 million hectares of land. The net balance is 1.49 million hectares of land that has yet to be distributed across the nation. About 3.7 million hectares of the awarded land titles cover private and government-owned lands under DAR. This leaves DAR a balance of about 600,000 hectares of mostly private agricultural lands still owned and controlled by influential landowners who remain vigorously opposed to CARP. DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman tells GMANews.TV that apart from this figure, the department has an additional 600,000 hectares of private agricultural lands that the program failed to cover in previous years. Pangandaman admits that two years will not be enough to finish land distribution, but says the administration is doing its best to meet the social-economic goals of CARP. “The President still considers CARP a centerpiece program to achieve social justice," Pangandaman says. Worst under Arroyo Farmers’ groups, however, say CARP registered the worst results under Arroyo’s watch. Her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, has been hailed as “the father of land reform," but this did not seem to matter in Mrs. Arroyo’s case. She had entered into compromise deals with groups of landowners in the Visayas and Mindanao, including the families of those well placed in local government units. For instance, soon after she won the 2004 elections, Mrs. Arroyo appointed lawyer Rene Villa as her fourth DAR secretary, a move that civil society groups perceived to be a political payoff to her election patrons, mostly those from the sugar planters’ bloc in Eastern and Western Visayas. Villa replaced officer in charge Jose Mari Ponce, who came under fire from Negros landowners and local agrarian reform officials for proceeding with land reform in areas where the court had issued restraining orders or injunctions. Peasant groups allege that Mrs. Arroyo’s brother-in-law, Rep. Ignacio “Iggy" Arroyo (5th district, Negros Occidental) lobbied with her on behalf of the Coalition of Landowners in the Philippines (CLP), whose members own large tracts of land in his district. Villa, a former presidential adviser for Western Visayas and private counsel for landed families such as the Lacsons, had admitted in media interviews that Mrs. Arroyo had personally acknowledged his support for her landslide victory in Eastern Visayas. In July 2005, Villa joined the “Hyatt 10" group of Cabinet members who resigned subsequently called for Arroyo’s resignation. But before this, Villa had refused to install farmer-beneficiaries in contentious properties in Negros Occidental, citing legal and technical issues. Some of the disputes had turned tragic for the farmers. Two TFM beneficiaries, one in Davao Oriental and another in Negros Occidental, had been killed allegedly by the private guards of landowners. Under Mrs. Arroyo’s five-year stay in Malacanang, five DAR secretaries had been appointed, a leadership change so frequent it has taken its toll on CARP’s implementation. Mrs. Arroyo’s accomplishment record in terms of land distribution is the poorest, compared with Presidents before her. To make matters worse, the highest number of human rights violations against farmers and land reform activists has been tallied under her administration, according to TFM’s Sobrecaray. Since 2001, the start of the Arroyo presidency, an annual average of 109,514 hectares were distributed, the lowest accomplishment rate compared with that under former Presidents Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada who served for less than three years. The annual average was 135,420 hectares under Aquino; 314,896 hectares under Ramos; and 133,355 hectares under Estrada. Still and all, in 2005, DAR claimed it has surpassed its 130,000-hectare target, and distributed 131,069 hectares of private and government-owned lands to about 88,152 agrarian reform beneficiaries. Manuel Quiambao, president of the non-government Philippine Ecumenical Action for Community Enlightenment (PEACE), takes exception to this claim. He insists that one has to look at the type of lands and the distribution scheme that DAR employed, to arrive at its 2005 figure. PEACE assists 3,000 farmers tilling about 12,000 hectares of land in the Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon province. Almost a third of the distributed lands, or 39,010 hectares, were under the Voluntary Land Transfer/Direct Payment Scheme (VLT/DPS), one of the modes of land acquisition and distribution that allows the farmer and the landowner to negotiate. In most cases, Quiambao says, the scheme has led to fake land transfer arrangements, with the farmers losing actual control of their lands and reverting to their old roles as mere farm workers. Narciso Nieto, DAR undersecretary for field operations, says that administrations before Arroyo’s distributed untenanted rice and corn lands, and public lands, which was why they encountered “less resistance." In contrast, Nieto cites that the Arroyo government is left with the most contentious properties in hot spots such as Negros Occidental, Camarines Sur, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental and Bukidnon. “We are left with the most difficult job at the tail-end of CARP," Nieto tells GMANews.TV. Paper landowners The numbers, the hectares, make up only half the story of CARP. “Farmers who were supposedly installed are usually owners only on paper," Quiambao of PEACE says. With a bureaucracy that takes to its duties with great reluctance, even in the face of increasing clamor from farmers, landowners enjoy greater leeway to circumvent CARP any which way they want, he says. Take the case of Eddie Lopez, who received a certificate of land ownership award (CLOA) in San Narciso town, Bondoc Peninsula, together with 212 other claimants, in 2001, or five years ago. To this day, Lopez says he and his fellows could not peacefully cultivate their lands because of continuous harassment from the former landowners – the Reyes, Uy, Matias and Zoleta-Queblar families. About 213 farmers, including Lopez, are now embroiled in 186 criminal complaints that the former landowners had filed. The landowners had filed suit before the regional and municipal trial courts, for all sorts of alleged causes, including attempted murder, malicious mischief, grave threats and trespassing. The farmers voluntarily “surrendered" to the justice department last week to bring to public attention how landowners supposedly continue to use the law to discourage farmers from their land claims. In some instances, even local DAR personnel are perceived to be conniving with resisting landowners to keep farmers at bay. Alexis Arsenal, DAR regional director for Western Visayas, refuses to install 102 TFM CLOA holders at the 478-hectare Hacienda Velez Malaga in La Castellana, Negros Occidental, about 67 kilometers from Bacolod City. This, despite direct orders from DAR Secretary Pangandaman for his regional deputies to enforce the law. “Worse, he even warned local DAR officials they would be fired from their jobs if they are found working with peasant groups," Sobrecaray of Task Force Mapalad says. Hacienda Velez Malaga was covered by CARP in 1996 but its former landowner, sugar magnate Roberto Cuenca, immediately filed a petition for annulment of CARP, and sought an injunction from the La Carlota regional trial court. Pressure from farmers’ protest actions compelled DAR to proceed with CARP’s implementation in the area, leading to the distribution of CLOAs in 2002, and payment of P122-million compensation to Cuenca for his 144-hectares property. In prior years, violence has erupted in the hacienda when farmers asserted their right to the land. The latest case was last year when Cuenca’s armed guards reportedly mauled farmers as they tried to expand the 10 hectares they had occupied earlier on their own initiative. Cuenca’s security guards also allegedly burned four of the farmers’ houses. Pangandaman’s order to uphold the farmers’ claim is based on the September 2004 Supreme Court ruling that DAR has sole and exclusive jurisdiction over agrarian-related matters or disputes, thereby stripping landowners of any excuses to run to the lower courts to protest CARP. The high court’s ruling, made in relation to another land of Cuenca in La Carlota City, became final and executory in March 2005. TFM estimates that because of Cuenca’s continued control of the land, the farmers of Hacienda Velez Malaga had forfeited about P11.5 million in income, based on the projected net income of P20,000 per hectare per year. Quiambao warns that protesting landowners would exploit the escalating political killings to thwart peoples’ moves to push for CARP, as indicated in the series of peasant killings. Six farmers and land reform activists had been brutally killed in relation to land reform claims within two months. The latest casualty was TFM farmer leader Mario Domingo in Hacienda Cambuktot in La Castellana, Negros Occidental. (See related story) Government response Last May 25, in response to demands of farmers groups for Malacañang’s intervention, presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor promised to bring the perpetrators and masterminds to justice. By all indications, the Palace wants to turn a particular contentious land case into a showcase project. The farmers had been assured they would be installed peacefully through government support. Promptly, the DAR formed a task force that will cooperate with the police and military in protecting farmers. Pangandaman clarifies that not all landowners have defied CARP. “Some of them just want to ensure that their farm workers benefit from the program and that they are justly compensated," he says. But the CLP, which groups the most influential landowners in Negros Occidental, has been opposing the appointment of DAR Undersecretary Nieto whom they accuse of aggressively “engineering forced installations" of farmer beneficiaries. CLP made a similar protest in June 2004 under the term of DAR officer in charge Ponce. No to extension? Despite the snowballing resistance to CARP from landowners, both DAR and peasant groups remain steadfast in their call for the program to be extended well into 2013, citing CARP as still the most viable framework to fight rural poverty. Abotu 75 percent of the nation’s 24 million poor Filipinos, or 19 million citizens, reside in the rural areas, most of them landless and denied access to government social services. Pangandaman cites a recent independent study on agrarian reform communities showing a 28 percent increase in farmers’ incomes after they had been awarded ownership of their land, and provided support services. As well, he notes that joint studies by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the United Nations cite the positive impact of CARP on the economic and social well-being of Filipino farmers. DAR’s proposal for CARP’s implementation to be extended for five more years faces its toughest hurdle in the landowner-dominated Congress, which needs to pass a new law for the program to acquire budget allocation. While some lawmakers are keen on extension, Pangandaman says, “we are doing all our best to muster all the support from Congress." As for farmers like Lopez, the agrarian reform struggle will continue on, the frustrations, threats, and risks notwithstanding. “Our ancestors taught us that we should own the land we till," he says. “ We won’t stop until we get what is due us." GMANews.TV