Why should Land Reform be a major election issue?

A huge part of our population still depends on agriculture for their livelihood. 75%, or three-fourths, in fact are farmers and farmworkers. And for every ten farmers, seven do not own the land they work on.

Farmers who do not have their own land have to work on the haciendas and estates of landlords, and corporate farms of foreign agribusinesses. As a consequence, they do not own the harvest even if they did all the labor. They do not even have a say on how the harvest should be divided and almost all the time, the division is unfair.

Many of our presidents have passed so-called land reform laws, the latest of which is Cory Aquino’s CARP (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program). CARP was supposed to expire in 1998 but was extended. On the eve of CARP’s second expiration in 2008, peasant group KMP released a study which showed that from 1988 to 2008, the figure of 70% of peasants being landless did not change.

According to the KMP, the CARP contained many ‘loopholes’ which allowed landlords to either evade CARP or regain their lands from farmer-beneficiaries. One is the SDO (stock distribution option) of Hacienda Luisita notoriety. Instead of land, peasants are given shares of stock in the corporation owning the land. Land can always be planted with crops, meaning it is a steady source of income, or at least food. Stocks can only be exchanged for cash once, and most of the time, it has little or no value.

Another loophole is that the peasants have to pay for the land. This is unfair considering that in most cases, it is the sweat and blood of the peasants and their ancestors who made the land bloom in the first place. The decades of exploited labor by the farmers are more than enough payment for the land. Additionally, the landlords overvalue their land when it is being covered by CARP. The peasants have no say because only the landlord, DAR (Dept. of Agrarian Reform), and Land Bank get to determine the land value.

The KMP also criticized the CARPER (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms) which is brainchild of Akbayan and its Representative, Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel. The CARPER did not change any of the loopholes. It only added more funds for the CARP. Coincidentally, many NGOs allied with Akbayan receive CARP funds.

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Tags: 2010 elections, CARP, Chiz Escudero, GARB, Gilbert Teodoro, land reform, landlords, Liza Maza, Makabayan, Manny Villar, Noynoy Aquino, Satur Ocampo

Below is the [DRAFT] Explanation of Vote of Kabataan Party-list Rep. Mong Palatino against HB 1257 An Act Accelerating the Completion of the Land Acquisition and Distribution Component of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), By Providing Automatic Appropriation Thereof, and Addressing Major Implementation Problems of the Program, Amending for the Purpose Republic Act No. 6657, As Amended, Otherwise Known as “The CARP Law of 1988” and Executive Order 129, As Amended:

I vote “NO” to HB 1257, I vote “NO” to extending the present Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

I vote NO because CARP extension would only create more opportunities for land owners and agribusiness firms to further consolidate their control over agricultural lands.

HB 1257 specifically provides for a “farmland as collateral,” an essential element of market-oriented land reform. Farmers who would avail of this provision may just find their lands foreclosed, thus resulting in the return of already-redistributed agricultural lands to the ownership of landlords and big agribusinesses.

I vote NO HB CARP extension because the present CARP has failed to stop bankrupt farmers from selling or transferring distributed lands despite so-called prohibitions on such transfers.

CARP failed to fulfill the constitutional mandate on agrarian reform program, as clarified by the Supreme Court by stating that “through the agrarian reform, the farmer at last will be released not only from want but also from the exploitation and disdain of the past and from feelings of inadequacy and helplessness; the farm will be his/her portion of Mother Earth that will give not only the staff of life but also the joy of living”.

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Tags: agrarian reform, CARP, GARB, Kabataan Party, land reform, landlords, Mong Palatino