Farmers troop to DAR over slow CARP implementation

MANILA, Philippines - More than 800 farmers representing the Save Agrarian Reform Alliance (SARA) yesterday trooped to the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to air their discontent over the alleged ineffective and snail-paced implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER).

The group, commemorating the 24th anniversary of CARP, said a huge number of landholdings have not been covered, distributed, and are in the different stages of land acquisition process, owing to stumbling blocks such as non-coverage due to the refusal of Municipal Agrarian Reform Officers and other DAR officials.

They also pointed to other problems such as the non-installation of farmers; pending titles at the Registry of Deeds; and problems of exclusion and inclusion in targeting of beneficiaries and land identification.

SARA has recorded 26 land cases with a total of 19,692.27 hectares and 3,622 farmer-beneficiaries in Luzon.

In the Visayas and Mindanao, the land cases number more than a hundred.

“From our consultations with farmers and advocacy groups in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, there is only one message from the peasantry – that DAR is paralyzed even as Malacañang’s stand on the issue has remained vague. DAR’s people, especially the bureaucracy below, is no longer inspired to work,” said Trinidad Domingo, SARA spokesperson and leader of Pambansang Koalisyon ng mga Kababaihan sa Kanayunan.

From DAR, the group held a caravan to Mendiola.

Jaime Tadeo of PARAGOS-Pilipinas, another spokesman of SARA, said there are the second generation problems on lands that have been distributed, such as the recall of titles already handed out, reversals, land use conversions especially in irrigated lands, and lack of support services.

SARA initially welcomed Malacañang’s pronouncement to open its doors to farmers, but was not officially invited by President Aquino’s Cabinet members.

However, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte earlier said they were willing to cooperate with farmer groups and had asked for information on the gaps in implementation.

SARA is asking for the effective completion of CARPER as an agenda in President Aquino’s 2012 SONA.

It said the government should allocate the maximum mandated budget of P150 billion under the law.

It also asked the Aquino administration to adopt a transparency policy by publicly disclosing the annual list of targets for land distribution per province. SARA members include 10 national farmers’ federations.