Sugar planters to file petition vs CARP implementation

BACOLOD CITY - Sugar planters and landowners in Negros, Cebu and Ormoc City (Leyte) are jointly filing a case with the Supreme Court against the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Land Registration Authority (LRA) and the Land Bank of the Philippines for alleged violation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL).

Former Cebu governor Pablo Garcia said he might represent the group in the case which is expected to challenge the constitutionality and legality of the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Garcia was a member of the congressional bicameral committee when House Bill 400 was deliberated and finally enacted into law as Republic Act 6657 in 1988.

Meanwhile, Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon renewed efforts to push for the memorandum of agreement on agrarian reform as an alternative for the peaceful implementation of CARP in the province during the agrarian reform seminar organized by the Concerned Landowners of Negros at the Sugarland Hotel in Bacolod City.

Marañon stood pat on his stand despite resistance from peasant and cause-oriented groups which argued that the MOA would run counter to CARP.

The MOA was signed by the provincial government and representatives of the National Federation of Sugar Planters, Confederation of Producers’ Associations, United Sugar Producers’ Federation of the Philippines, Provincial Agrarian Reform Coordinating Committee, Armed Forces, Philippine National Police, League of Municipal Mayors, Association of Chief Executives of Negros Occidental and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.

The agreement hopes to ensure the harmonious implementation of CARP with full support from non-government and people’s organizations and landowners.

However, the MOA was not carried out because it lacks the DAR’s conformity. Until now, it is still being reviewed by the DAR’s legal division.

Marañon said that unless an alternative approach is introduced, the MOA remains the best solution to problems in the CARP implementation.

In the meantime, Marañon is pushing for compliance with the provisions of the law on payment of just compensation before actual takeover.

He also wants assurance that CARP beneficiaries are actual workers of the concerned estates and that land reclassification and development masterplans of local government units are upheld.

He is also seeking a review of the CARP implementation to determine whether the lives of farmer-beneficiaries have improved, if they still possess the land awarded to them and whether the Landbank had been repaid for its disbursements for land acquisition.

Marañon cited a report of the oversight committee of the House of Representatives which claimed that the CARP was a failure after P120 billion has been spent for it.

The report, he said, will be of great help in efforts to seek a review of the CARP implementation.

Rep. Ignacio Arroyo (fifth district, Negros Occidental) said the MOA was a laudable approach to the CARP implementation in the provinces.

"I would encourage the DAR to implement the law and not break it," he said.

If there is a need for a resolution in Congress to make it effective, he said, the landowners can count on him and other members of the Visayan bloc.

Arroyo also promised to spearhead any amendments to CARL to make it just and beneficial to both farmworkers and landowners.

His nephew, newly elected Pampanga Rep. Jose Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo Jr., also gave his support, saying that the landowners’ concerns are valid.

He said the DAR should go out of its way in clarifying issues on the CARP implementation.

Meanwhile, Garcia said the CARP ought to be a "land for the landless tillers" program, not a "land to the landless" one.

He lamented that some DAR officials are not familiar with the provisions of CARP.

"The DAR people have a different mindset. For them, agrarian reform is distribution," he said.

Garcia said the landowners should send a strong representation to their respective mayors and congressmen.

"The President, the Armed Forces and the PNP should not allow themselves to be used as instruments of the DAR’s illegal implementation (of CARP)," he said.