The KMP has determined that this provision undermines the intent of any agrarian-reform program.
He said this very provision was used by the Cojuangcos of Tarlac to spare the nearly 6,500 hectares of Hacienda Luisita from land distribution. Instead of actual land distribution, the farmers were given shares of the company under the stock-distribution option. But far from making the farmers instant millionaires, the stock options instead denied the farmers and farmworkers from owning a piece of the Hacienda Luisita lands that they have been tilling for more than five decades. This is precisely the kind of feudal setup that a genuine agrarian reform program ought to break.
On the island of Negros, other stock-option and joint-venture schemes by Eduardo Cojuangco are prevalent, particularly in Pontevedra, La Carlota City, La Castellana and Himamaylan City.
New Form of Feudal Exploitation
Landlords who did give up their land “profited immensely” from the implementation of CARP, a study by the Sentro Para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo found out.
Citing data from the Land Bank of the Philippines, the study revealed that from 1972 to 2005, the compensation to 83,203 landowners for 1,348,758 hectares reached P41.6 billion in cash and bonds, or an average of P 500,463 per landlord. In 2005, P4.6 billion went to the compensation of landlords.
The staggering payments to landlords can be traced partly to the practice by landlords to go to the courts to seek “just compensation” whenever they are not satisfied with the valuation by the DAR and Land Bank of the Philippines of their property.
On the other hand, supposed beneficiaries ended up with the short end of the stick. Mariano said that CARPER will result in more cancellations of certificate of land transfer (CLTs), certificate of land ownership awards (CLOAs) and emancipation patents (EPs) as farmer-beneficiaries would be unable to pay for land amortization.
He said that, on average, the cost of agricultural lands is pegged at P235,00 per hectare. “With six percent interest and land tax, farmers would find it hard to pay for amortization,” Mariano said.
He called land amortization as a new form of feudal exploitation. “Amortization constantly increases,” he said. Mariano said that if a farmer failed to pay three annual amortizations, his land is foreclosed and will most likely end up in the hands of rich landowners. This leads, he said, to the reconcentration of land to the few landlords.
In fact, the DAR reported in 2007 that 5,049 EPs and 103,092 CLOAs were already canceled involving 204,579 hectares of land. The figure does not include pending cases of cancellation.
The DAR figures are way below the results of the study of independent think tank Ibon Foundation that said that by the middle of 2004 alone, more than 2,000 EPs and CLOAs covering 380,000 hectares of land were canceled.
Worse Provisions
Mariano said he expects a worse version of CARPER at the bicameral conference. “I am certain that landlord-legislators will want to insert more anti-farmer provisions,” he said.
The Senate already passed on third reading Senate Bill (SB) 2666 or “An Act Strengthening CARP.” In a statement, Ibon described the bill as worse than the original version as it represents a concession to big private landed interests.
“The bill, for instance, allows previous landowners to reacquire and reconsolidate their landholdings after the 10-year retention period,” Ibon said.
Ibon said the bill reduced the CARP into real-estate transaction as it retains non-land transfer schemes like the SDO. Also retained is the provision for voluntary land transfers that requires farm workers and small farmers to pay spot cash to the landowners at market value – an impossible imposition on poor farmers who can hardly even make ends meet.
The Senate version also only targets distribution of lands to only 400,000 farmer-beneficiaries even as there are still 1.6 million farmers awaiting land reform, excluding the millions still awaiting land awarded them and those whose lands have been sequestered due to indebtedness.
Ibon added that even as SB 2666 retains compulsory land acquisition and distribution (LAD) component, it also upholds the same provisions that allow landowners to skirt around CARP coverage.
Resistance
Mariano said they will continue to demand the junking of the CARP extension.
The farmers led by KMP will hound with protests every step leading to the ratification of CARPER as they continue to push for the passage of a genuine agrarian reform bill.
“Free distribution of land should be the central characteristic of a truly social justice measure,” Mariano said.
In the meantime, Mariano said the peasants have to continue relying on themselves in the struggle for genuine land reform in the countryside. (Bulatlat.com)
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June 18th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Many people in the ( now divided )people's movement are very much surprized on the self-imposed hatred of GARB advocates against the proponents of CARPER. For us, proponents of CARPER we really felt sorry on the tirades of our former collegues on CARPER – which sometimes set forth an insinuation that they are conniving with land owners who are hell bent in opposing the former CARP and now CARPER – in fact 8 members of the militant party list reps. opposed the approval of CARPER. But this we believe is not true.
We really understand our former collegues in the people's movement, as always their position reflects on what have been agreed and imposed from the the top. Sectarianism and disunity will continue to thrives in our midst if we continue to cling on this kind of attitude.
Maybe we need to respect each other position and focus on the common enemy. Anyway, natural law dictates that all rivers, streams and body of water will really goes to the sea.
Not because we change our path, that we already give up our conviction for social change, not because we are espousing reform as a step towards social change that we already coopted ourselves to side with the ruling class,
As Deng Shiao Peng once says " It doesnt matter what is the color of the cat as long as it catches mice, it is still a cat. "
We believe that sooner or later a convergence is possible, like all bodies of waters that converge in the seas, we will meet each other at the end of the road – believing that change is possible even in the midst of diversity and differences in ideas.We need to realize that the color of the world is not solely red but a rainbow, without differences in ideas,any ideology or philisophy will die.
The landless farmers and farm workers really needs land to till inorder to survive under the present economic set up, practically they cannot wait for GARB to be realized under an elite controlled Congress and government.Like you we don't have the illusion that under the present CARPer law, the ideal change that we are dreaming would be realized but at least we provide a breathing space for those people in the countrysides that continue to hopes for the better.
Let us not make ourselves as prophets, instead lets give the chance to small farmers and farm workers to speak for themselves.
As Paulo Freire once says in his book , The Pedagogy of the Oppressed- real liberation is not only the liberation of the oppressed and the exploited but also the liberation of the oppressor and the exploiter. Anyway, I believe we share the same dream and that is to " humanize the way people lives on this earth," not only ideologies teaches that, also religions and many other philosophies. The only difference is that they chooses to walk in different paths.
More so I believe in an adage, that the end does not justify the mean, but unfortunately, in our case, its always the mean that doesn't justify the end.
So let's be realistic as far as we can be. Karl Marx, once said " we do not prefigure the future but we are building the present by learning the past.
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:28 am
[...] MANILA (June 14, 2009) – It seemed incongruous, the sight of farmers marching toward Mendiola, carrying placards and chanting angry words against the extension of a law that purports to emancipate them from the bondage of the land. Read On. [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 4:25 am
Hi..im still trying to understand this whole thing about CARP..ok, my parents were able to obtain land through this program, now they want me to finance them to cultivate/work the land..my question is, is this worth my money? ayokong gumastos ng pera and then suddenly they’ll just kick my parents out of the land..ano ba legal procedures dapat gawin para namin atleast merong assurance…please help…thank u
July 5th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
I would like to know “what happens to the implementation funding for CARP for the month of July? What happens to the salaries of employees receiving under fund 158 now that CARPER Law is still pending ratification by both chambers of Congress? Though the Law is retroactive to July 1, 2009, but this is not a law yet, considering that it is not signed into law yet. Please send me your thoughts to my email ad. hacker_lexy@yahoo.com.ph thanks
July 5th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
where can we download the Draft of CARPER Law? Is there policy statement from the DAR of any guidelines of what to do in the implementation of CARP for this month of July, now that CARPER Law is still a subject for ratification by both chambers of congress?