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By Johnna Villaviray, Senior Reporter
Conclusion
THE country has a total land area of about 30
million hectares, about 14.1 million hectares of which are
agricultural lands. The data presented in a 2001 study by the
Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (Pakisama) and AR! Now
showed that agricultural lands decreased to 12.5 million hectares by
1995, possibly due to massive conversions brought about by the
government’s industrialization program.
A separate study by Ateneo’s Institute of
Philippine Culture commissioned by the DAR observed that carrying
out agrarian reform is difficult, because of weaknesses inherent in
the law and because the agencies that could plug the leaks have been
inefficient at times.
Among the criticisms of the law are that its
vague provisions give wide latitude for interpretations and that
Congress has not helped improve the environment for carrying out the
law, the study further noted.
The program is also short of funds. The
government toyed with the idea of suspending the acquisition of more
private lands, since it was already having a difficult time paying
for property previously acquired.
Another paper prepared by AR! Now showed a
P42.8-billion gap in the program’s budget as of 2001.
“Congress slashed the 2002 CARP budget,
particularly the landowners’ compensation component, by almost 50
percent. With only P1 billion allotted as initial cash payments for
lands, only about 200,000 hectares of productive land or about
50,000 hectares of marginal lands can be acquired in 2002,” AR!
Now said in the study.
AR! Now believes that the budget for CARP was
exhausted because of the increasing value of land, since private
lands are acquired at market value.
The deficiency in funds has kept the government
from giving the beneficiaries support assistance–like irrigation
and training on fertilizer handling–for them to maintain
profitability. This was one reason why some beneficiaries decided to
sell the land to developers.
These two problems are a chicken-and-egg
situation resulting from the “dismal” collection of
amortizations. AR! Now noted that collections for 1996-2000 have not
gone beyond 28 percent and arrearages have amounted to as much as
P1,431.33 million.
But according to Leland de la Cruz, an analyst
from the Ateneo, among the biggest stumbling blocks to land
distribution is the country’s confused land registration system,
which makes it difficult to identify the land up for distribution
and the processing of the documents for the titling.
“How can we distribute the land when we
can’t identify it and its boundaries?” de la Cruz asked.
“It’s a quiet but fundamental problem that nobody seems too keen
to resolve.”
He cited at least two cases in Bicol where the
registry of deeds had burned down.
A delay in the processing or reconstruction of
documents means a delay in the resolution of the dispute over the
land, de la Cruz explained.
The Mapalad farmers were fortunate that they did
not have to fight over the deed to the Carlos property, since the
heirs did not contest the old man’s will leaving 14 hectares of
the 99-hectare property to his widow and two children.
Article 842 of the Civil Code states: “One who
has compulsory heirs may dispose of [one’s] estate provided it
does not contravene the provisions of this Code with regard to the
legitime of said heirs.”
Despite the myriad of problems facing the
agrarian reform program, the Ateneo study does not call it a
failure, since “access to land is now more democratized,” with
1.1 million farmers benefiting from the leasehold program covering
1.5 million hectares of land.
The study also commended the Agrarian Reform
Community (ARC) strategy as effective in delivering social services
to program beneficiaries through foreign funding, but urged more
promotion of public awareness for the plan. About 33 percent of the
farmer beneficiaries have signed up in ARCs.
“The CARP has been successful in distributing
public lands but is facing serious challenges from private lands for
compulsory acquisition,” the study said.
Since 2002 the DAR’s accomplishment rate in
distributing public lands has been 114.6 percent, and private land
distribution has been 57.8 percent. Land distribution was
exceptionally efficient during the Ramos administration, but
Ramos’s Agrarian Reform Secretary Ernesto Garilao acknowledged
that this was because DAR prioritized the distribution of public
lands that involved little or no resistance.
“We also encountered difficulties later, and
these are the same ones that faced the administrations after us,”
Garilao said in a telephone interview.
“The government should bite the bullet and
assert state power.”
Unfortunately, political will has been subverted
by politics.
Garilao’s successors–Horacio Morales,
Hernani Braganza and Pagdanganan–had and have no chance to
complete what is expected to be a six-year appointment. Morales’
term was cut short by Joseph Estrada’s ouster in 2001, while
Pagdanganan took over from Braganza four months ago.
“The quick transitions don’t help,” de la
Cruz said, explaining that the short time Garilao’s successors
had, gave them too little time to effectively carry out projects.
Garilao acknowledged that the social environment
has changed since the Ramos administration, but he observed that the
failure of succeeding governments to exploit the collaboration of
civic groups made it more difficult to carry out agrarian reform or,
at least, land distribution.
“We felt that farmers’ protest actions were
part of the social pressure needed for the program,” he said.
Activists view the post-Garilao leadership as
generally unfriendly to farmers, individually or collectively.
Rorie Fajardo, a spokesman for the civic group
Task Force Mapalad, complained that farmers are subjected to
stringent security checks before they are allowed in and that
protests are prohibited altogether at the DAR main office in Quezon
City.
Despite the prohibition, however, some 41
farmer-activists from Negros Occidental are staging a hunger strike
to illustrate their full-blown frustration at the government’s
failure to protect their rights from landlords who arm security
guards to the teeth to keep the farmers out of the land promised
under CARP.
“Secretary Pagdanganan is not paying attention
to us. We are physically weak, but we will continue the hunger
strike until he hears us and promises to help,” said 34-year-old
Edna Robricaray, a spokesman for the group.
Robricaray is one of the farmers from the
132-hectare Hacienda Conchita in La Castellana, Negros Occidental,
driven out of the land and out of work because they chose to fight
for a piece of the property. She said two of her neighbors were shot
dead in a December riot when they forced their way into the hacienda
armed with the mother CLOA granted by the DAR.
Tuminhay acknowledged that sustained protest
action is necessary to help the agrarian reform program fulfill its
promise of land for the ordinary farmer, but dissuades them from
going on a hunger strike.
“Sana ibang protesta na lang. Baka mamatay na
lang sila dyan, wala pang ginagawa para sa kanila [They should
revise the strategy. They could die of hunger and they still may not
be heard],” Tuminhay warned.
Frustration and hopelessness are mounting among
farmers growing impatient with the slow implementation of agrarian
justice. In September 1998 a 23-year-old farmer, Ruben Lision, died
of complications after taking poison a month earlier. He was
depressed about the Supreme Court’s first decision favoring the
Quisumbings.
Robricaray, who grew up working at the Hacienda
Conchita, also appeared frustrated at the slow delivery of the
promised land. Living in a hut outside the hacienda with her
seven-year-old daughter, Edna makes ends meet by accepting laundry
while her husband takes odd jobs.
“I left my daughter with my mother. I would
like to just be with her, but I have to be here so she wouldn’t
have to go through the same experience,” Robricaray said.
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