EXTENDING CARP IS BETRAYAL Central Visayas Farmers Development Center, Inc. (FARDEC) opposes the proposals to extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) beyond 2014. Twenty-six years of implementing CARP has not resulted in farmers acquiring a better life for themselves through an equitable landownership. Official statistics show that poverty incidence in the country remains high in the rural areas where landless, small-scale farmers and fisherfolks are the overwhelming majority of the poor. Ironically, they who produce our food go hungry. Government has repeatedly claimed that land ownership is eminently doable under CARP, saying it has successfully reached 80% of its scope in 2012. Yet, even after decades of implementation, land ownership remains skewed with 1% of the entire Philippine population owns almost 1/5 of the country’s total agricultural lands while 2 million farmers are left to divide another 1/5 among themselves, says a study from the independent research group, IBON Foundation. This means, vast tracts of agricultural land is still intact and concentrated in the hands of few individuals. It might also be important to note that CARP has already undergone several extensions as it always fails to reach its target before the deadline ends, even with the reduction of its scope. As per the experiences of the farmers serviced by FARDEC, lands that were already awarded to them through Presidential Decree 27 and CARP, remain undistributed. Emancipation Patents (EP), Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) and Certificate of Land Transfer (CLT) are cancelled. Particularly in the case of farmers in barangay Bonbon, Cebu City, their CLTs were cancelled notwithstanding the fact that they have already religiously completed the payment for their land. Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) has documented numerous cases of CLTs, EPs and CLOAs that were revoked. To name a few, farmers of Hacienda Aleguijo in Toledo City, Cebu, Hacienda Morales in Brgy. Guba, Cebu City and Hacienda Libre in Cebu had their CLTs and EPs cancelled. Further, actual land ownership is still elusive since instead of awarding lands to the farmers, they are alternatively subjected to contractual arrangements, such as stock distribution option and leasehold agreement that essentially do not transfer land ownership and control to the farmers. There is no such thing as agrarian reform if farmers are not protected against cancellation of lands that are already awarded to them and against measures that seek to remove their control and ownership over their lands. Any program that claims to implement social justice makes no sense if it cannot break land monopoly and farmers continue to wallow in poverty. Such is the case of CARP and its latest version, CARPER. It contains provisions designed to protect big landowners by according them retention rights and compensation and by allowing numerous exemptions and conversions, in addition to contractual arrangements or non-land transfer schemes as alternatives to actual land distribution. Amortization payment required from the beneficiaries also gives room for the re-concentration of lands to the landowners. We do not support the extension of CARP. Extending a faulty agrarian reform program is a betrayal to the trust placed upon the government to solve the long standing problem of rural poverty due to landlessness and social inequality. CARP and CARPER must be scrapped. Let’s save billions of the people’s money by implementing a genuine agrarian reform program – a program that distributes land for free, accords full tenurial security and protection to the farmers, provides support services to ensure agricultural productivity and needs not take 26 years to implement.#
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 08:48:28 +0000
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