Agrarian Reform Under Benigno Aquino III Administration

Agrarian Reform under Benigno Aquino III administration: 

Present: DAR which is the lead agency for CARP implementation is bent on sustaining the gains of agrarian reform through its three major components– Land Tenure Improvement (LTI), Program Beneficiaries Development (PBD) and Agrarian Justice Delivery (AJD). Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER) or Republic Act 9700: 1. Focus on large-sized private agricultural lands; Redeployment of competent DAR personnel to the 20 high LAD provinces; Streamline LAD processes and procedures; and Enhance the database of landholdings for ease in targeting and monitoring the LAD; 2. Prioritizing the subdivision of collective Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) involving LBP-compensable lands; 3. Fast tracking the documentation and settlement of landowner compensation for already distributed lands; 4. Synergizing and rationalizing the efforts of the CARP implementing agencies in all processes of LAD; 5. Partnering with the civil society organizations (CSOs) in the delivery of LTI services, particularly the large-sized private agricultural lands (PAL); 6. Adopting a job-sharing scheme wherein under the ONE-DAR concept, provinces will share responsibilities (low-LAD provinces with high LAD provinces) to minimize the need to hire new personnel; and 7. Increasing the utilization of the services of geodetic engineers to assist the provincial and municipal offices in land acquisition considering the difficulty of hiring new personnel and the demands of a post-2014 scenario. DAR’s Program Beneficiaries Development (PBD) priorities: 1. Undertaking convergence initiatives with rural development agencies to complement the resources and streamline the efforts of DAR, DA and DENR; 2. Inking public-private partnerships (PPPs) develop models of collaboration and business models in AR areas with the participations of the CSOs, academe, research and development institutions and LGUs; 3. Expanding official development assistance (ODA) portfolio in order to augment incomes for PBD;

4. Integrating LTI and PBD on a province-to-province basis; 5. Shifting focus of low-LAD balance provinces to PBD; and 6. Unlocking credit facilities for the agrarian reform beneficiaries through capacity development for credit providers and farmer-borrowers. 

Better off or not? - Farmers under the Agrarian Reform in the Noynoy Aquino administration are still not satisfied. Though there are a number of implementations on lands for the benefit of the farmers there are still farmers who are not satisfied especially with the Hacienda Luisita land which was promised for them but is said to be distributed by 2014. - Another testament to the unsatisfied farmers are the constant rallies held by different organizations of farming groups in different places in Manila. - Dorita Vargas, a 63-year-old widow and farmer, who was assured of getting land within 2012 by the President no less. Aling Dorita and 13 other farmers sharing a 5hectare lot could not even step into their land since it is right at the middle of a 126hectare property in La Castellana, Negros Occidental that is still the subject of a dispute. Vargas has written the President on May 22 to complain about her dilemma. - “We wish to express our complete dismay on the lack of capacity of De los Reyes to lead DAR. He is the biggest impediment to CARP completion,” TFM-Negros president Alberto Jayme and Rodito Angeles said in the five-page letter.

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Evidence of improvement or non-improvement: - Non improvement: government still had to distribute a total of 1,209,236 hectares to landless farmers. From July 2010 to December 2012, Malacanang was able to distribute only 251,876 hectares (representing a measly 21% ). leaving a balance of 957,360 to be given away until the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARP) funding expires on June 14, 2014. - DAR records surmise that the current Aquino administration is the worst performer as far as land acquisition and distribution (LAD) since the CARP was launched by the Cory Aquino administration. The Noynoy Aquino administration actually scored the worst record since 1986, distributing only 251,876 hectares to the farmers since July 2010, represemting a measly 21% of the total LAD coverage. - In its May 28, 2013 letter to President Aquino[1], the advocacy group SulongCARPER claimed that the Aquino administration claimed to have distributed 113,866 hectares last year but official records of the Land Registration Authority (LRA)

showed that the government only distributed 59,837 hectares, even including 11,991 hectares in the pipeline vs the false claims of DAR secretary of 113,866 hectares. This against the revised taget of 180,000 hectares.

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Conclusions: - So far there are more complaints and dissatisfaction expressed by our farmers in the Agrarian Reform of President Benigno Aquino III. There are a number of promises for our farmers but so far only few have been made to action. But what really dissatisfies our farmers is the Hacienda Luisita which is still not distributed to them. But in 2014 our president has promised the land distribution which might be a big turn-around for him in his Agrarian Reform.