Genuine agrarian reform, not bogus CARP, key to national development

Hacienda Luisita farmers and their supporters protest vs the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARPER) and the Stock Distribution Option (SDO) scheme in 2011. Photo by Bulatlat.com

This is in reaction to an article written by Billy dela Rosa, entitled “CARP: Key to National Development” (PDI, March 29, 2015).

Dela Rosa says that a more radical faction in the agrarian reform debate is demanding an end to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program or CARP and is pushing for the passage of the genuine agrarian reform bill or GARB. Features of the GARB, however, were not given any space in his arguments.

The piece dwells on the history of the government land distribution programs since Quirino up to the CARP, which ran for almost three decades with two extensions from 1988.  The author refuses to call the CARP the dismal failure that it is as he bats for another extension.

The CARP’s numerous loopholes that dela Rosa himself presented lead however to this: as a bogus land reform program, the CARP can only go so far as to create illusions of reform while actually maintaining land monopoly and foolishly attempting to suppress peasant unrest. The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) accurately describes the CARP as the longest-running, most expensive, and bloodiest bogus land reform program in the world, before the program finally expired in June 2014.

According to dela Rosa himself, rampant cancellation of certificates of land ownership awards (CLOA) to farmers now covers over a million hectares of land. He did not mention though that the CARP requires beneficiaries to pay for land amortization and the failure to do so in 3 cumulative years will result to foreclosures. In Senate hearings, LandBank officials admitted that only 10% of farmers have been able to pay these amortizations in full.

Free land distribution is one of the main features of the GARB as this is the essence of social justice. Dela Rosa even decries the meager budget allocated to CARP without mentioning that billions of pesos of public funds were actually used to compensate despotic landgrabbers or have been lost to bureaucratic corruption and “support service” scams.

Support packages have supposedly resulted to improvements in beneficiaries’ incomes as the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) reports, but just a look at the situation of farm workers in the Aquino-Cojuangco’s Hacienda Luisita reveals how completely bogus the CARP is.

Cory Aquino’s CARP provided for the non-land transfer scheme Stock Distribution Option (SDO) which made farmworkers “stockholders” with slave wages of Php 9.50 per payday at the Hacienda Luisita, Inc (HLI). In 2012, the Supreme Court (SC) revoked the HLI’s oppressive SDO. The SDO, however, is still in effect in a dozen haciendas in Negros and elsewhere affecting thousands of farmworkers up to this day.

Almost three years after the SC’s landmark decision for total land distribution in Luisita, only 4,099 out of the 6,453-hectare estate have been allocated for distribution. The DAR’s issuance of belated notices of coverage (NOCs) proved useless as the Aquino-Cojuangcos employed brute force to evict farmers in areas supposedly “not covered by the SC ruling.”

Majority of Luisita beneficiaries awarded CLOAs meanwhile, have now fallen prey to illicit leaseback contracts or aryendo brokered by dummies to maintain the Aquino-Cojuangcos’ control over sugarcane production. These contracts are akin to agribusiness venture agreements (AVA) or corporative schemes then promoted alongside the SDO and now being institutionalized by the current Aquino government.

AVAs legitimize landgrabbing and exploitation of farmworkers in favor of landlords and agribusiness TNCs. Private sector “assistance” – i.e. monopoly control – is promoted to substitute for the state’s obligation to provide support services. The SDO and AVAs make a complete mockery of agrarian reform’s aim to transfer ownership and control of agricultural lands to the tillers. As “beneficiaries” of CARP, farmworkers continue to endure landlessness and slave wages as the poorest of the rural poor.

The CARP must now be completely junked along with destructive neoliberal schemes such as the SDO and AVAs. Agrarian reform advocates must rethink their position supporting the pestilence called CARP.

The GARB, with its aim to break up the monopoly of a few landowners and foreign control of agricultural lands, must now be enacted to put an end to feudal and semi-feudal exploitation in the Philippine countryside. Genuine land redistribution must be attended with a holistic program of support services that will empower the peasantry politically, nurture their productive strength and carry the spirit of true cooperativism. Agrarian reform must also be integrated with a program of national industrialization as key to genuine national development.

 

RANMIL ECHANIS

Deputy Secretary General

Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA)

 

Ibasura ang CARPER! – UMA / Ambala

Binigkas ni Florida “Pong” Sibayan ng AMBALA ang posisyon ng mga manggagawang-bukid ng Hacienda Luisita hinggil sa ekstensyon ng Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), kanina sa hearing sa Senado.

Posisyon ng Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura / Alyansa ng mga Mangggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA) hinggil sa Senate Bill 2188 o panukalang ekstensyon ng Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program hanggang Hunyo 30, 2016.

Para sa Senate Committee on Agrarian Reform hearing, Mayo 21, 2014

Inirerehisto ng mga manggagawang-bukid sa ilalim ng UMA at AMBALA ang mariing pagtutol sa isa na namang ekstensyon ng peke, waldas at palpak na Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. Matagal nang dapat na ibinasura ang batas na ito dahil sa napakahaba at madugong rekord nito ng panloloko at pagpapahirap sa mga magbubukid.

Ang panukala para sa pagkumpleto ng komponenteng land acquisition and distribution (LAD) at paglalabas ng mga notice of coverage (NOC) para sa mga agrikultural na lupaing dapat saklawin ng programang ito — gaya ng isinasaad ng House Bill 4296 at nitong Senate Bill 2188 — ay isang grandyosong pagpapaasa at kahibangan. Matagal nang galit at ginigipit ang milyun-milyong magsasaka dahil sa CARP. Ang mga asendero’t aryendador na namamayagpag sa loob ng Kongreso, Senado at Malacanang ang siyang tanging matutuwa sa pagratsada ng hungkag na panukalang ito.

Masdan natin ang kalagayan ng mga manggagawa sa agrikultura sa Isla ng Negros, ang tradisyunal na balwarte ng malalaking panginoong maylupa gaya ng mga Cojuangco. Libu-libong ektarya ng lupain ang nananatili sa kontrol ng mga asendero dahil sa mga iskema ng CARP na corporative scheme at stock-distribution option (SDO). Aabot na sa 60% ang pagbawi o rekonsentrasyon ng lupain mula sa mga tinatawag na “benepisyaryo ng CARP.” Ang paglalabas ng mga NOC, gaya halimbawa sa Hacienda Ilimnan at Arloc sa Murcia ay hindi garantiya ng distribusyon ng lupa sa mga magbubukid — lalo na at ang lokal na pamahalaan ng Negros Occidental ay kasabwat ng mga dambuhalang kumpanyang multi-nasyunal gaya ng Dole sa pangangamkam ng lupa mula sa mga magbubukid.

Huwag na tayong lumayo pa. Sa mahigit 6,000 ektaryang bakuran mismo ni Pangulong BS Aquino sa Hacienda Luisita, nilalapastangan ng asenderong angkang Cojuangco-Aquino ang inilabas na panibagong NOC para sa mga lupain ng TADECO, ang ninunong kumpanya ng mga Cojuangco. Kaliwa’t kanan ang pananakot, pandarahas at panloloko sa mga magbubukid gamit ang pinakamatataas na opisyal ng DAR, AFP, PNP at mga korte lalo na sa probinsya ng Tarlac, para lamang makabwelo ang pangangamkam at pagpapanatili sa kontrol sa lupa para produksyon ng tubo at ilegal na pagpapalit-gamit (land conversion).

Sino ang maaasahan ng pamilya ng asenderong Pangulo bilang katuwang sa pagsabotahe ng repormang agraryo sa Hacienda Luisita? Nariyan ang kanyang Kabarilan na si dating LTO Chief at Casino Queen Virgie Torres na bagong salta sa Luisita bilang aryendador at kolektor ng ipinamahaging Certificate of Land Ownership Award o CLOA sa pamamagitan ng barat na rentahan na bumibiktima sa gipit na “benepisyaryo.” At nariyan din mismo ang kagalang-galang na kinatawan ng Distrito ng Tarlac na nakaupo rin sa Komite ng Repormang Agraryo sa Kongreso, Rep. Noel Villlanueva, na matagal nang sumasaklaw sa libu-libong ektaryang lupain ng Luisita para sa pagpapatanim ng tubo para sa Central Azucarera de Tarlac ng pamilya Cojuangco-Aquino. Ang ipinagmamalaki ng gubyernong Aquino na 93% nang kumpleto ang distribusyon ng lupa sa Hacienda Luisita ay pinapasinungalingan ng malaganap na aryendo sa pangunguna ng mga personaheng ito na protektado ng DAR at Malacanang.

Halos kalahating bilyong piso mula sa kaban ng bayan ang ibinigay na kumpensasyon sa pamilya Cojuangco-Aquino para sa Hacienda Luisita. Pero ang mga agrikultural na lupain ng asyenda ay patuloy ngayong binabakuran at binabantayan ng mga bayarang sanggano, habang binubuldoser ang mga pananim, sinusunog ang mga kubo, binubugbog, minamartilyo ang ulo, pinapadampot at ipinapakulong ang mga magsasakang dapat ay benepisyaryo ng repormang agraryo. Ang mismong paglalabas ng NOC, nang hiwalay sa kabuuang lupain ng Asyenda Luisita na dapat ipamahagi batay sa utos ng Korte Suprema, ay parte ng panibagong panloloko na pinahihintulutan ng batas na CARPER.

Sobra-sobra na ang dalawa’t kalahating dekada ng implementasyon ng CARP para makita ng publiko na walang pangil ang batas na ito sa pagbuwag ng malalaking monopolyo sa lupa. Ang pondo ng bayan na inilalaan para sa huwad na programang ito ay nagiging gatasang-baka lang ng mga kurakot na pulitiko na madalas kaysa hindi ay kabilang din sa mga angkan o dinastiya ng makapangyarihang mga asendero sa buong bansa.

Lantad na sa madla ang talamak na korapsyon sa gubyerno. Dawit sa pork barrel scam ang mga ahensyang nangangasiwa sa agrikultura gaya ng DA at DAR. Napakalaking insulto para sa sektor ng mga magsasaka at manggagawa sa agrikultura ang pagsasangkalan sa hikahos na kalagayan ng mga magbubukid para makapag-imbudo ng mga pondo para sa mga tunog-magsasakang pekeng NGO na inaalagaan ng mga kurakot sa gobyerno. Pero higit pang malaking insulto ang daan-bilyong pondo – ANG TUMATAGINTING NA 150 BILYONG PISO – na patuloy na ilalagak mula sa kaban ng bayan para sa walang kwentang ekstensyon ng isang walang kwentang batas gaya ng CARP.

Sa pork barrel scam, kailangan pa ng mga tagapamagitan na gaya ni Janet Napoles at mga pekeng NGO para makapangurakot. Pero mas masahol ang CARP at ang panukalang ekstensyon nito, dahil ang mga tiwaling ahensya gaya ng DAR at ang mismong Opisina ng Pangulo na may kontrol sa pondo para sa debt service at unprogrammed items sa GAA ay patuloy na bibigyang kapangyarihan para maging “legal” at direktang daluyan ng limpak-limpak na kumpensasyon para sa lupang hindi naman binibitiwan ng mga swapang na asendero gaya ng pamilya ni Pangulong BS Aquino. Isang tingin lang sa kalunus-lunos na sitwasyon ng mga manggagawang-bukid sa Negros at Hacienda Luisita, makikita na ang garapalang pangungurakot – totoong hindi makatarungan ang tinatawag ng CARP na “just compensation.”

Wala nang maaasahan ang mga manggagawang-bukid at manggagawa sa agrikultura mula sa panibagong ekstensyon ng CARP. Matagal nang pinapanawagan ng UMA at AMBALA ang pagsusulong ng Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) o na kilala ngayon bilang HB 252 bilang alternatibo sa pagpanaw ng CARPER sa susunod na buwan.

Sa interes ng tunay na reporma sa lupa at hustisyang panlipunan, kailangan nang ibasura ang bulok na batas, ilibing ang naghihingalong CARP.

Farm Workers in HaciendaLuisita & Negros Say Yes to Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill

NEWS RELEASE | Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) | May 7, 2014

Farm workers in Hacienda Luisita and Negros wholeheartedly support House Bill 252 or the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) but are vehemently opposed to any extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) being railroaded by the Congressional Oversight Committee on Agrarian Reform (COCAR).

Member-organizations of the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), led by AMBALA in Luisita and the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) based in Negros, echo the call of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) to junk CARPER and immediately enact HB 252 authored by Anakpawis Partylist Rep. Fernando Hicap.

The COCAR through House Bill 4296 and Senate Bill 2188 mandates the issuance of Notices of Coverage (NOCs) over all remaining agricultural lands within the next two (2) years, and the provision of budgetary mechanisms for the completion of the Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) process including support services.

Issuance of NOCs is not a guarantee that there would be actual and genuine land distribution, as proven by tragic experiences of farmers in Hacienda Luisita and Haciendas Ilimnan and Arloc in Murcia, Negros Oriental.

In Hacienda Luisita, the Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) belated issuance of NOCs to 358 hectares of in barangays Balete and Cutcut came to naught when the powerful Cojuangco-Aquino family, via the Tarlac Development Corporation (TADECO), ordered the violent eviction of farmers through relentless bulldozing of crops, looting of farm tools and livestock, and burning of huts. TADECO has secured hundreds of hectares of agricultural land by deploying not only fully-armed private security personnel, outposts and concrete fences – but also employing assistance from the local police, paramilitary forces and the 3rd Mechanized Battalion of the Philippine Army, which has set up company headquarters right in the middle of contested agricultural land in Barangay Balete.

The DAR itself is clearly complicit in the aggressive land grab efforts of the Cojuangco-Aquino family. The DAR is only consistent in defending TADECO’s claims and giving undue favor to the Cojuangco-Aquino family in its sham implementation of the landmark Supreme Court ruling to distribute Luisita to farmworkers.

There is also the experience of the farm workers and farmers in Haciendas Ilimnan and Arloc. Three NOCs were already issued out to said areas since 1998 and 2004 respectively. Thirty-seven (37) and twenty-six (26) petitioners in these haciendas have already signed the Application to Purchase and Farmers Undertaking (APFU) in the same respective years.

Farm workers were installed by the DAR on 54 hectares of the 155 has. of land in Hacienda Ilimnan only in October 20011 even if their CLOAs were approved as early as 2008. However, in 2010, land grab efforts of the Negros Oriental provincial government converted these lands into a commercial livestock farm. This local government unit (LGU) continues to violently evict supposed beneficiaries from these areas. As of late, fruit giant Dole Philippines also came into the picture, and began plowing 101 hectares of land in Hacienda Ilimnan for fruit production last December.

The grave suffering of peasants under the pro-landlord CARP has pushed farm workers in Hacienda Luisita and in Negros to support legislation which offers a genuine alternative and clear-cut solution to the centuries-old land problem.

The scope of House Bill 252 (GARB) mandates that all agricultural lands should be distributed without allowing any exemptions and exclusions from physical land distribution. Coverage depends on actual agricultural use of public and private land – and does not rest on hocus-pocus declarations conjured by landlords, i.e. of their property being residential or commercial in nature.

The Cojuangco-Aquino clan has become the prime example of dodging land reform by employing underhanded maneuvers allowed by the CARP, such as the stock distribution option scheme (SDO), land use conversion, and its newest ploy of sugar block farming and leasehold agreements brokered by yellow agents such as P-Noy “Kabarilan” Virgie Torres.

GARB allows for free land distribution while compensation is given only to landlords who have acquired lands in good faith. Clearly, Dole Philippines and the provincial government of Negros Occidental aim to control lands in Murcia through coercion. A review of Hacienda Luisita’s history will also reveal why farmers say that the murderous Cojuangco-Aquino family do not deserve a single centavo for this controversial sugar estate.

Railroading the extension of the bogus CARP by the COCAR is contrary to the interests of farm workers and farmers. It shows that Aquino’s hacendero government is clearly insincere in implementing genuine agrarian reform. ###