Chapter 8

The Administration shall implement the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) with due regard to the rights of owners to just compensation and to the ecological needs of the country. Land distribution shall be fast tracked while leasehold operations shall be intensified. The delivery of support services shall be rationalized. There shall be speedy delivery of agrarian justice. Partnerships shall be forged to facilitate program implementation. Program advocacy shall be vigorously undertaken.

The CARP will complete the distribution of the remaining 2.62 million hectares within the decade.

Land is a very strategic resource to accumulation of wealth and other inputs to production. Those who own land are usually the ones who control and or have access to productive resources such as credit, technologies and other inputs to production. Inequitable access to land has, therefore, contributed to high poverty incidence in the countryside. Addressing this issue is critical to the government’s goal of reducing poverty and the promotion of social equity. Asset reform, especially land reform, is key to the attainment of these twin goals.

Implementation of the agrarian reform program under this administration shall be viewed from the perspective of directly contributing to the administration’s social equity agenda as the foundation of growth and development of the countryside. Agrarian reform shall directly contribute to sustaining agriculture productivity growth and poverty reduction. Prosperous agrarian reform communities will also contribute to sustaining peace in the countryside. An equity-led growth that is felt at the grassroots level would renew the trust and confidence of the rural population to the government and undermine the issue of armed conflict, which are based on agrarian issues.

The delivery of support services shall be anchored on well-designed agrarian reform communities (ARCs) development plans. The ARC Development Plans also need to be linked to the SAFDZs Plans pursuant to the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) to ensure coordination and complementation among agencies in the delivery of services. The support services shall be designed as a cooperative undertaking of various government agencies to be coordinated by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), in partnership with local government units (LGUs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector.

In addition, a comprehensive human resource development package should accompany the physical transfer of assets to support the transformation of the former tenants and farm workers into entrepreneurs who will engage in both farm and nonfarm enterprises. The human resource development package is also critical to the government’s goal of creating an equitable and modernized agriculture sector.

CARP implementation is lagging behind its original 1998 completion target. In fact, of the total land targeted for distribution under the CARP, only 67.5 percent have been distributed so far. Thus, a total of 2.62 million hectares still remain to be covered by the program. The organization building and capacity building program and the provision of other support services in terms of agrarian justice, physical infrastructure, and entrepreneurial support have similarly been constrained.

The slow and protracted pace of CARP implementation is primarily caused by the following:

1. Inadequate funding. There is a lack of sustainable source of financing, which makes the program dependent on political lobbying and congressional appropriations. While Republic Act (RA) 6657 explicitly provides for the sources of funding for the program, these have not been fully tapped. For instance, the recovery of ill-gotten wealth has been way below expectation while the target proceeds from privatization of government assets has not been attained as most of these assets are still to be privatized. Moreover, due to financial

constraints, there has been very limited unappropriated government funds. Thus, in 2000, the approved budget for CARP land acquisition was only P600 million (about 10% of the total requirements). While there are shortfalls in the budget for land acquisition, such problem is compounded by the growing need for the public sector to finance support infrastructures and services to enable agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) to increase their land productivity;

2. Landowner resistance. There is continuing resistance from landowners, as they are insisting on receiving "fair market value" for their lands; the landowners’ expectation of fair market value greatly often exceeds the estimated land market value. Thus, landowner’s resistance unduly delays the processing of lands to be acquired and distributed by the DAR.

3. Problematic lands, lands without documentation and deductibles. A significant bulk of the 1.2 million hectares CARP scope balance to be covered by DAR is composed of problematic lands (247,664 hectares or 21%), lands without documentation (218,937 hectares or 18%) and lands classified as deductibles (392,144 hectares or 33%). These total 858,745 hectares or 75 percent of the balance.

4. Unstable peace and order in some areas. The incidence of conflict in some areas, specifically major portions of Region V (67,000 hectares or 46.2% of the regional balance) and in the province of Basilan (3,218 hectares or 72% of the balance) have slowed down the implementation of the CARP program.

5. Failure to install ARBs on awarded lands. Unsettled agrarian cases pending at the DAR Adjudication Board deprive farmers, who have been issued Emancipation Patents (EPs) or Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs), actual access and peaceful possession of the land. The pending cases arise due to counterclaims of landowners that the subject lands have pending applications for retention, exemption or conversions or that technical descriptions of the property are defective, etc.

Despite these setbacks to CARP implementation, initial findings of studies recently conducted noted improvement in incomes and reduced poverty incidence in some ARCs. For instance, between the year 1990 and 2001, real per capita income of ARBs were estimated to have increased by 12.2 percent. Poverty incidence estimates show a downtrend from 47.6 percent in 1990 to 45.2 percent in 2000. Poverty incidence among ARB households was calculated to be lower than in non-ARB households in both years (55.1% in 1990 and 56.4% in 2000).

Thus, within the next four years, efforts need to be intensified to address the aforementioned issues to fast track land distribution and install ARBs in the lands awarded to them. Delivery of support services need to be strengthened to sustain the gains that have been achieved in terms of increase in productivity and income of beneficiaries. Moreover, a more focused or targeted support service programs should be implemented in order to shelter

the most vulnerable beneficiaries from the transition coupled with the adjustments in the macro environment due to increasing competition and globalization.

Targets

A total of 781,122 hectares of land will be distributed during the period 2001-2004 under the CARP (Tables 8.1 to 8.2). ARCs, which currently number 1,308 will be increased to 2,035. The government is committed to providing access to support services to an estimated 43 percent of all ARBs (inclusive of EP/CLOA titleholders and leasehold contract holders inside and outside of the ARCs) through intensified social infrastructure and capability building efforts (Table 8.3 ).

Strategies

1. Pursue partnership with peasant organizations, alliances and networks towards joint advocacy for an increased budgetary and legislative support;

2. Explore other funding sources to finance land distribution activities covering private lands; and

3. Strengthen database and information system to facilitate planning and monitoring of program areas and beneficiaries.

1. Expand the coverage of ARCs and develop network of ARCs within and across provinces for complementation of products and services;

2. Strengthen coordination with DA and other agencies responsible for planning and delivery of support services in SAFDZs to ensure complementation in the implementation of agriculture and fishery modernization activities;

3. Institutionalize the delivery of support services to ARBs, especially those in the ARCs by strengthening coordination with other agencies including LGUs and NGOs; and

4. Integrate land tenure improvement activities with beneficiaries development to ensure timely delivery of support services.

1. Advocate for the passage of the bill strengthening the DAR Adjudication Board;

2. Engage the services of more lawyers at reasonable compensation;

3. Enhance skills of Provincial and Municipal Agrarian Reform Officers (PAROs/MAROs), Barangay Agrarian Reform Committees (BARCs) and Provincial Agrarian Reform Adjudicators (PARAds) in alternative dispute resolution, and mediation skills; and

4. Ensure better case management and feedback mechanism.

1. Promote partnership with farmers, NGOs, POs, church, LGUs, academe and landowners; and

2. Revitalize and strengthen the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC), Provincial Agrarian Reform Coordinating Committee (PARCCOM), BARC and Regional/Provincial/Municipal CARP Implementing Team (R/P/MCIT).

1. Intensify information dissemination and education to broaden stakeholders understanding of CARP and minimize resistance from landowners and critics; and

2. Reinforce alliance with media groups, communicators and other organizations to support social marketing and advocacy campaigns.

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