After numerous consultations with various farmer-organizations and other members of the rural poor sector in Mindanao, we urgently call on the House of Representatives and the Senate to pass House Bill 4077 as submitted by Representative Riza Baraquel without the additional pro-landowner amendments.
We urge our lawmakers to pass the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) with the needed reforms for the benefits of landless peasants and their families to achieve the mandate of the constitution which says: “The State shall, by law, undertake an agrarian reform program founded on the right of farmers and regular farmworkers who are landless, to own directly or collectively the lands they till.”
Roughly, there are still 250,000 hectares of agricultural lands here in Mindanao waiting to be distributed to qualified farmer-beneficiaries.
We urge the legislature to prioritize the interest of the landless sector by supporting pro-rural poor provisions and not to add any “killer amendments” which will serve the intentions of the landed elites and again defeat whatever benefits there are for agrarian reform beneficiaries. House Bill 4077 is product of sacrificed lives, agrarian experiences and learnings from the implementation of CARP for the last 19 years. The essence of agrarian reform should not be defeated by killer amendments introduced by Representatives Mitra (2nd District, Palawan), Garcia (2nd District, Cebu), and Villafuerte (2nd District, Camarines Sur) to amend the bill in the guise of development and rice productivity.
The present issue is not on the question of whether to extend CARP or not. It is whether CARP has already completed its mission or does it need more time and resources to fulfill its guarantees and obligations declared since the enactment of RA 6657 twenty years ago. It is not an issue of whether CARP is defective. It is a matter of what needs to be adjusted and what reforms should be undertaken to correct the inequitable distribution of lands in the countryside. It is a matter of how will we respond to the inefficiencies of the government and the law itself.
Mindanao is hailed as the country’s food basket which contributes 45 to 60 percent of the national export economy. Ironically, only few landed elites distribute to this basket, while millions of members of rural poor population fill it up. Being a land of abundance, the stark reality remains that six (6) out of the ten poorest provinces nationwide is in the island.
Skewed agrarian relations and crosscutting interests among other social ills, hinders the main principle of CARP---social justice. Concretely, the argument by anti-CARP actors is denied by the fact that the gains are insignificant. But CARP, despite its imperfections has relatively improved the lives of landless farmers, agricultural workers and the rest of the rural poor, even inside highly contentious commercial plantations. The positive changes reflected by these gains prove that a condition favorably enabling and facilitative can be implemented to have a meaningful agrarian reform that would significantly contribute nationally to the economic growth of the landless poor.
Sadly, the Speaker of the House submitted a Resolution that contradicts the fundamental declarations of our Constitution and that of Republic Act 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL). House Speaker Nograles presented House Resolution (HR) 737 which is detrimental to the given situation in Mindanao. It assails the constitutional provision on national patrimony by allowing foreign investors to operate vast tracts of agricultural lands.
Furthermore, plantations which are under labor administration, cultivated, and developed for exports crops, will be excluded from CARP’s Compulsory Acquisition scheme. He claims that for 20 years of CARP implementation, Mindanao has not moved on to a better economic condition.
We disagree. Successfully installed agrarian reform beneficiaries of plantations and other landholdings who managed their own farms is an apparent proof of agrarian reform gains, more so, if appropriate and genuine support services delivery is prioritized for their benefit.
Another anti-reform initiative is from the proposed “Perfecting Amendments” submitted by Rep. Villafuerte. It bypasses the authority of the AR committee in the Lower House. And with the aid of the House Speaker, it poses a threat to agrarian reform. It suggests a disadvantageous timeframe for Land Acquisition and Distribution aspect of the program and gives emphasis on the validity of implementing Compulsory Acquisition, only for lands issued with notices of coverage on or before June 30, 2008. Furthermore, only lands offered before December 31, 2008 under the Voluntary-Offer-to-Sell scheme will be valid. In short, land distribution will no longer be applicable after 2008.
It also allows land-use conversions from agricultural to other uses, which provides opportunity for landowners to massive land conversion. This is another instrument in justifying validity of previous initiatives to evade CARP, not to mention the provision in allowing farmland as collateral.
These “Perfecting Amendments” may be perfect to the few landed elites, but definitely not for the landless rural poor. Yes they are perfect for the landowners – for they perfectly reverse CARP gains!
These amendments are outright contradiction to the constitutional mandate which is to institute social justice through equitable re-distribution of land, wealth and power. Instead, these amendments open up the doors for reconsolidation of distributed lands and invalidate supposedly CARP achievements.
The CARP Law is well-known as a compromise law. It has pro-landowner provisions which wash down the pro-peasant riders resulting to derailing the benefits of agrarian reform. What seems to be transpiring at the House of Representatives right now may be a reenactment of what happened 20 years ago, and place our nation’s future in critical condition. The Nograles- Villafuerte resolutions clearly manifest the interests of the wealthy owners of huge tracts of agricultural lands advancing their interests in two modes; one is putting an end to land acquisition and distribution; the second, selling our patrimony to foreign investors and entities.
Implementing the CARL was a struggle in itself. It caused the bloodshed in Hacienda Luisita, the harassments and displacements of thousands of farmworkers in commercial plantations, the march of the Sumilao farmers, and other peasant struggles just to assert their rights to land under the CARL.
Let us all remember the murder of Enrico “Ka Eric” Cabanit, and the recently killed peasant-leader Vicente “Ka Vic” Paglinawan. These gross agrarian and human rights violations should be put to an end.
What we need is a socially responsive law to complete the agrarian reform tasks. The unfinished task is the distribution of the remaining 1.3 million hectares of agricultural land nationwide and provision of support services to help achieve rural industrialization and development. There are approximately 200,000 more beneficiaries in Mindanao who are expected to benefit from the extension of the program This excludes the more or less 2,000 agrarian reform communities that need support services for them to be transformed into modern agricultural development nodes in the countrysides.
We need the immediate enactment of a new CARP law with the needed revisions advantageous to farmers, farmworkers and their families to fulfill the expected benefits and end poverty in the countrysides. And this law must be a consolidation and protection of its victories and not for its disintegration.
We collectively call for the enactment HB 4077 without killer amendments!
Signatories:
Alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM)
Builders for Rural Empowerment and Human Rights Advocates Networks (BRETHREN)
Mindanao Farmworkers Development Center (MFDC)
Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (PAKISAMA)
Ugnayan ng mga Lokal na Nagsasariling Organisasyon ng mga Mamamayan sa Kanayunan (UNORKA)