'CARP beneficiaries not better off since program implemented'

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – “It is now almost 20 years since we received our lands under CARP but we are not better off than when we were still working with the previous landowner,” lamented Francisco Gevero, a 60-year-old agrarian reform beneficiary (ARB) from San Antonio Farms, Hacienda Caridad, Manapla, Negros Occidental.

He said when they were still workers in the farm, they had the employer to run to in times of medical emergencies or tuition for their children, continued Gevero. “Now, we have no one to turn to except financiers who insist that we lease our land to them in exchange for immediate cash.”

Gevero is one of the 40 members of the San Antonio Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association (SAARBA) headed by Ronico “Boboy” Lozada, the representative of the people’s organization in the Provincial Agrarian Reform Committee (PARCOM) of Negros Occidental.

Lozada confirmed that they did not receive support services from DAR. “We did not receive any farm input or financial assistance. How can we make our lands productive when we do not even have a carabao to plow the field? After the lands were awarded to us, DAR left us on our own resources.”

“CARP has been successful in terms of land distribution but there was a failure in terms of poverty alleviation, he said. Now there are talks to extend CARP for another five years. How can DAR accomplish in five years what it failed to do in 20 years?” Lozada asked. “CARP extension is tenable only if it focuses on support services for us, existing ARBs, so we can increase our farm income.”

According to Lozada, SAARBA is debt-free. In terms of organizational management, they rank Level 5, the highest in DAR’s rating. SAARBA has a hand tractor, a rice thresher and a roofed rice mill. They were also able to build a four-classroom primary school named after SAARBA,” Lozada said. But even with these projects, Lozada hinted that his members can barely survive.

“Being a member of the PARCOM, it is hard to say this but DAR has been lacking in support services. The project we have came not from DAR but from Manapla Mayor Manolet Escalante III and Rep. Alfredo Marañon III (2nd District-Negros Occidental), to whom we are forever grateful,” he said.

San Antonio Farms has been devoted to sugarcane for as long as the ARBs remember. They recall working on the fields since they were young. The farm was foreclosed by a government financial institution as it was among the first to be covered by CARP in 1988. Since sugar farming is all the ARBs knew from birth, they were naturally inclined to go into this endeavor. The problem, however, is that sugarcane farming is capital intensive.