Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Essay

For a long period of time, the agrarian system of Philippines was being controlled by the large landlords. The small farmers in Philippines were struggling for their rights to land and other natural resources. The implementation of Agrarian reforms proceeded at a very slow pace. This was due to the lack of political will. The redistribution of land was also very slow. Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law: Philippines The Republic Act No. 6657, alternatively called the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law was signed by President Corazon C. Aquino on 10th June, 1988. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law is responsible for the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in Philippines. The law focused on industrialization in Philippines together with social justice. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law: Objectives. The primary objective of instituting the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform law was to successfully devise land reform in Philippines. It was President Arroyo, who signed the Executive Order No. 456on 23rd August to rename the Department of Land Reform as Department of Agrarian Reform. This had been done to expand the functional area of the law. Apart from land reform, the Department of Agrarian Reform began to supervise other allied activities to improve the economic and social status of the beneficiaries of land reform in Philippines. CARP Meaning Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program of 1988, also known as CARP, is a Philippine state policy that ensures and promotes welfare of landless farmers and farm workers, as well as elevation of social justice and equity among rural areas. Agrarian reform is a 100-year history of unfinished reforms after the United States took over the country from the Spaniards. Before the Hispanic period, there were no owner-cultivators, only communal land owned by the barangay which consisted of a datu, freemen, serfs and slaves. The Spaniards replaced this traditional system of land ownership, similar to existing systems among several indigenous communities today and distributed the land (haciendas) to the Spanish military and the clergy or established encomiendas (administrative districts). The 1935 Constitution addressed the issue of foreign access to land, i. e. corporations must have at least 60% Filipino ownership, and use-rights were limited in time. Other reforms included limitations on interest rates on loans and an increase in the sharecropping share from 50% to 70%. But very little of these laws were really followed in practice and the Huk rebellion was born. Under the Magsaysay and the Macapagal administrations, land reform was again tackled, such as the Mindanao resettlement program and the Land Reform Act of 1955, but no significant results were really achieved in terms of scope and magnitude of land transfer. With martial law, the whole Philippines was declared a land reform area under PD 27. Significant progress was made, but the continued practice of the share tenancy system, coverage limitation to rice and corn lands, the many exemptions allowed and the shortcomings in support systems (although it was Marcos who set up the new Agrarian Reform Department) did much to limit the affectivity of the reforms in addressing the over-concentration of wealth problem and rural poverty. The CARP years since 1988 – for the first time the program covered all agriculture lands regardless of crop and tenurial arrangements. Land distribution increased substantially – about 7 million hectares with about 4. 2 million farmer beneficiaries. But the total figures hide disturbing underperformances. – and only about 1. 5 million hectares of private agricultural lands have been covered for an accomplishment rate of only about 50% after twenty years. – Moreover the lack of support services, funding and infrastructure, is still prevalent. Of the original estimate of P220 billion to complete the program, only P203 billion have been budgeted by Congress, of which only about P170 billion have been released. While there is significant empirical evidence that agrarian reform has yielded significant benefits and has the potential for even greater benefits, the fact is that it has encountered implementation problems. Regardless of the problems encountered by CARP, the point is that CARP is not the cause of the continuing poverty nor the obstacle to solving it. On the contrary, completing CARP in accordance with the mandate of the Constitution is a necessary condition to correct social injustice, and achieve sound agricultural development and economic growth. Of course, agrarian reform is not a panacea that will solve all our problems. Neither is education, nor health care, nor industrialization nor clean elections, nor honest leadership. The fact is that the path to growth with equity is a complex process because we need all the programs working together to succeed. In the final analysis, the future of CARP is a political decision of those in power with respect to two questions: – How much reform is the government willing to implement? – How much resources are government willing to devote to such reforms? Department of Agrarian Reform is the lead implementing agency of Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). It undertakes land tenure improvement and development of program beneficiaries. DAR conducts land survey in resettlement areas. It undertakes land acquisition and distribution and land management studies. The DAR also orchestrates the delivery of support services to farmer-beneficiaries and promotes the development of viable agrarian reform communities. The DAR logo shows the Departments acronym representing the institution and its role as the lead agency in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). Green stands for fertility and productivity while yellow represents hope and a golden harvest of agrarian reform beneficiaries who are the recipients of the services provided by the Department via CARP. Both colors imply that economic growth and sound rural development can be achieved through agrarian reform. Mandate The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) leads the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) through land tenure improvement, agrarian justice, and coordinated delivery of essential support services to client-beneficiaries. Its Mission: â€Å"To lead in the implementation of agrarian reform and sustainable rural development in the countryside through land tenure improvement and provision of integrated development services to landless farmers, farmworkers and small landowner-cultivators, and the delivery of agrarian justice†, and Vision: â€Å"A nation where there is equitable land ownership and empowered agrarian reform beneficiaries who are effectively managing their economic and social development for a better quality of life†