waterloo for agrarian reform

8/12/2019 Waterloo for Agrarian Reform

1/3

1

Waterloo for agrarian reform?

ByWalden Bello11:15 pm | Monday, September 16th, 2013

0 57 26

The Philippines still has a chance of meeting the Millennium DevelopmentGoal (MDG) of halving the proportion of people living in poverty by 50 percent from 1990 levels if it resolutely carries out the right policies, National

Economic Development Authority head Arsenio Balicasan said at a recentcongressional hearing.

Balisacans brave hopes were dashed a few days later when theadministration conceded that agrarian reform, one of the leading poverty

reduction programs, will not be completed by the end of June

2014. Agrarian Reform Secretary Gil de los Reyes said that the backlog ofundistributed land stands at almost 700,000 hectares, 450,000 of which areprivate lands subject to compulsory acquisition. According to him, it will

take up to the end of June 2016 to complete the distribution process.

Going back on a Promise, Violating the Law

The latest land redistribution schedule not only belies the presidents

promise to complete the process that he made to farmer leaders in themiddle of last year. It also violates the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform

with Extension Law (CARPER), Section 5 of which explicitly states that theDepartment of Agrarian Reform in coordination with the Presidential

Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) shall plan and program the final acquisitionand distribution of all remaining unacquired and undistributed land from theeffectivity of this Act until June 30, 2014.

Defending his revised schedule, de los Reyes said that his interpretation of

CARPER was based on the opinion of the Department of Justice that landacquisition and distribution may be extended so long as the notices of

coverage (NOCs) are distributed on or before June 30, 2014. Yet one looksin vain for any provision in CARPER that would allow extension of the

physical acquisition and redistribution of land covered by the reform. WhatCARPER does allow for is the advanced implementation of land

redistribution, not late implementation. I was one of the authors of theCARPER Act, and we made sure there were no loopholes that would allow

extension beyond June 30, 2014.

De los Reyes admitted that the DAR had only completed the easy part of

land reform: the distribution of public land and voluntarily transferred
http://opinion.inquirer.net/byline/walden-bellohttp://opinion.inquirer.net/byline/walden-bellohttp://opinion.inquirer.net/byline/walden-bellohttp://opinion.inquirer.net/byline/walden-bello


2/3

2

private land. Still to take place in the next few years, according to him, is

the compulsory acquisition and distribution of the nearly 450,000 hectares ofprivate land that big and medium landlords have hang on to with grim

determination owing their being the best lands in the country. Most ofthese lands are sugar lands in the Western Visayas and cash crop

plantations in Mindanao. So critical are the next few years that de losReyes admitted that developments in this period will spell the difference

between a Waterloo or a Normandy for agrarian reform.

The DAR chiefs announcement of a unilateral extension of landredistribution has added to the anxieties of small farmers and land reform

advocates who are already alarmed by the streamlining of the Department

of Agrarian Reform that is underway. While the administration projects thisas simply a rationalization of the DAR bureaucracy, many in civil society

see it as the phasing out of the department. Their interpretation is lentcredence by the recent admission of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala

that the functions of the DAR will be divided between the Department ofAgriculture and the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources.

Judicial Counteroffensive

Asked what was blocking completion of land acquisition and distributionaccording to schedule set by the law, the agrarian reform secretary pointed

to technical problems associated with land inventories, land recorddiscrepancies, and classification of lands.

It is hard, however, to conceal the real reason.

In many parts of the country, more and more cases of revocation of

Certificates of Land Transfer (CLOAs) are occurring, the most publicized ofwhich are in Quezon. Indeed, there has been a 4.6% increase in the

number of cases filed at the Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board between2012 and 2013. There is a judicial counteroffensive by landlords taking

place, and it is likely to intensify as land reform finally focuses on the most

productive private lands in the Western Visayas and Mindanao. The struggleover Hacienda Luisita case is not the climax of agrarian reform. The

tenacity with which the Cojuangcos held on to the plantation might simplypresage the intensity of the coming battle in the Visayas and Mindanao,

where big landed families will use every legal loophole, along with coercion,to retain effective control of their lands.


3/3

3

Poverty, Corruption, and Agrarian Reform

The central challenges to the country are the radical reduction of inequalityand poverty and the achievement of sustained and sustainabledevelopment. The completion of agrarian reform is a precondition for

both. We must not allow the dazzling statistics on economic growth to blindus to this.

Also, while the elimination of the pork barrel is a critical step in the battleagainst corruption, unless there are major gains in the battle against

poverty, of which land reform is one of the key weapons, the gains in thestruggle against corruption will be evanescent since the poor will be

constantly tempted to resort to patronage by the powerful in order tosurvive. Patronage politics, recent events have shown, is one of the

fundamental sources of corruption

It is not enough for President Aquino to not stay in the way of theredistribution of Hacienda Luisita. If the battle against corruption and

against poverty that he intends as his legacy is to be successful during the

rest of his term and beyond, he must transcend his class background andprioritize agrarian reform.

*Walden Bello, a representative of Akbayan in the House of Representatives,

was one of the authors of RA 9700 or CARPER, the Comprehensive AgrarianReform with Extension Law.

Read more:http://opinion.inquirer.net/61273/waterloo-for-agrarian-

reform#ixzz2fTZrPgZCFollow us:@inquirerdotnet on Twitter|inquirerdotnet on Facebook
http://opinion.inquirer.net/61273/waterloo-for-agrarian-reform#ixzz2fTZrPgZChttp://opinion.inquirer.net/61273/waterloo-for-agrarian-reform#ixzz2fTZrPgZChttp://opinion.inquirer.net/61273/waterloo-for-agrarian-reform#ixzz2fTZrPgZChttp://opinion.inquirer.net/61273/waterloo-for-agrarian-reform#ixzz2fTZrPgZChttp://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=bSAw-mF-0r4Q-4acwqm_6r&u=inquirerdotnethttp://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=bSAw-mF-0r4Q-4acwqm_6r&u=inquirerdotnethttp://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=bSAw-mF-0r4Q-4acwqm_6r&u=inquirerdotnethttp://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=bSAw-mF-0r4Q-4acwqm_6r&u=inquirerdotnethttp://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=bSAw-mF-0r4Q-4acwqm_6r&u=inquirerdotnethttp://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=bSAw-mF-0r4Q-4acwqm_6r&u=inquirerdotnethttp://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=bSAw-mF-0r4Q-4acwqm_6r&u=inquirerdotnethttp://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=bSAw-mF-0r4Q-4acwqm_6r&u=inquirerdotnethttp://opinion.inquirer.net/61273/waterloo-for-agrarian-reform#ixzz2fTZrPgZChttp://opinion.inquirer.net/61273/waterloo-for-agrarian-reform#ixzz2fTZrPgZC

waterloo for agrarian reform

Documents