Widespread Peasant Landlessness and the Deceits of CARP
Government repeatedly declares achievements by successive land and agrarian reform programs, including the CARP. How does this reconcile with decreasing land ownership according to agriculture census data?
By Sonny Africa
Ibon Features
MANILA — As the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) marks its 18th anniversary this month, rural poverty continues to be widespread and millions of peasants still remain landless. And this is not just after close to 20 years of CARP, but nearly half a decade of various agrarian reform programs.
Major land reform legislation in the country started with the Agricultural Tenancy Act of 1954, the Land Reform Act of 1955 and the Agricultural Land Reform Code of 1963. Following the Agrarian Reform Code of 1971 and Presidential Decree No. 27 (PD 27) in 1972 under the Marcos regime, agrarian reform took organizational form with the creation of a Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). Most recently, Republic Act (RA) 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) of 1988 initiated the CARP.
Yet, according to various Censuses of Agriculture, full land ownership has actually been on the decline since PD 27 was enacted. In 1971, 58% of all farms were fully owned but this fell to 47.5% in 2002; in terms of land area, fully owned farms accounted for 62.9% of total farm area in 1971 but fell to 50.6% in 2002.
By Cheryll D. Fiel
DAVAO CITY ? To Joel Virador, the Bayan Muna congressman who represents Mindanao, it?s an idea that makes perfect sense: if the state?s intelligence apparatuses can?t stop criminals from killing political activists, journalists, lawyers, students and church people, why should the Filipino people allow them to continue enjoying their intelligence fund?