By Thin Lei Win

BANGKOK (TrustLaw) – When Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III, son of two democracy heroes, was sworn in as the Philippines' fifteenth president on June 30, he pledged to tackle two pressing issues – corruption and poverty.

For sceptical land rights groups and activists, his approach to agrarian land reform, which he failed to mention in his inaugural speech, will be a test of how serious he is.

They say the slow progress of land reform is one of the major reasons for rural poverty and social injustice in the largely agrarian country. It is also one of the causes of a 40-year-old Maoist insurgency that has killed more than 40,000 people.

They point to Aquino's own hacienda (estate), which has been dragging its heels over reform, as well as to a government which they say is made up of wealthy landowners and to the unsolved murders of farmers fighting for the right to own land.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a big improvement,” Heidi Fernandez, an activist working with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) helping farmers to become land owners, told TrustLaw. “We have yet to hear him speak on land reform. This is the one issue on which he has to come up with a clear stance.”

Gerry Corpuz, spokesman for the left-leaning fishers’ alliance Pamalakaya, was more blunt. “The incoming Aquino presidency is a republic of big landlords,” he said, whom he expected to “continue their reign of terror”.

He said that in May, the influential Yulo family dispersed and detained farmers protesting against their eviction from a 7,100-hectare agricultural estate in Laguna near Manila, injuring 100 farmers. One hectare is about the size of a baseball field or a rugby pitch.

In another incident, private security officers of Manila South Coast Development Corporation in Hacienda Looc in the central Philippines had torn down farmers’ houses to evict them.

Roland Cabigas, managing director of La Liga Policy Institute, was more optimistic, lauding the appointment of lawyer Virgilio Delos Reyes, known for his interest in human rights, as the new secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform.

This oversees reform efforts under the country’s key land legislation, the 1988 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme (CARP). This was brought in by Aquino’s mother Corazon, who became president after the 1986 People Power revolution drove dictator Ferdinand Marcos from office.

The Aquino family’s reputation for propriety and honesty was a powerful lure in the last election after two administrations dogged by allegations of corruption, most recently under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

SKEWED PROPERTY REGIME

The idea for CARP originated under Marcos but Corazon Aquino enacted it, aiming to redistribute 8.1 million hectares of agricultural land to 4 million landless farmers and farm workers over an initial 10-year period.

The government says 7.2 million hectares has now been redistributed but many activists say that figure is wishful thinking.

They say farmers still do not have possession of large amounts of land that may have been officially redistributed. Some were awarded it, but this was later cancelled and the land redesignated for industrial use. Many have had to mortgage the land due to lack of support services – with some forced to sell it off again.

Four presidents and over 20 years since it began, CARP is heavily criticised for being dismally slow and overly bureaucratic, encouraging graft, providing inadequate help for farmers and for appeasing big landowners.

Activists say much land is still in the hands of a small group of people.

Corpuz quoted 1991 government statistics showing 60 percent of agricultural land was owned by 13 percent of the people, with under 10,000 landowners possessing one fifth of all land.

“The majority of private agricultural land has remained untouched over the last 20 years,” he said. Results from the most recent 2007 census are not yet out.

About a third of Philippines land is classified as agricultural and three out of five people in the countryside depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Almost half the population live on less than $2 a day.

“Land ownership is a basic necessity for a dignified and improved quality of life,” Cabigas said. “Land access directly addresses poverty in both rural and urban areas.”

All agricultural estates above five hectares are subject to CARP but according to ANGOC – a coalition of Asian NGOs working on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development – more than 5.3 million hectares, including the Aquinos’ Hacienda Luisita, were exempted in 1996.

The 6,435-hectare Luisita yet to transfer ownership as required to the 10,000 farmers who worked there for decades.

Corpuz and those who believe CARP does not go far enough are pushing for a more radical legislation which aim to distribute all agricultural land free to landless farmers. 

Others say CARP is too restrictive. They said it fosters uncertainty over property rights which dampen investment and prevents efficient farmers from expanding beyond the allocated land.

A CATALYST FOR CHANGE

La Liga’s Cabigas said that despite its shortcomings, CARP was a landmark reform move that has served as a catalyst for rural empowerment and social justice.

Nathaniel Don Marquez, executive director of ANGOC, says CARP is not a failure “because it persisted despite the tremendous odds against it – CARP has never been accorded the full support of government or of the political and landed elite”.

“Disheartening as the situation was, CARP advocates believe that the programme must be complete and could still be improved,” he said.

CARP has been extended twice since its inception, most recently last June when 147 billion pesos ($3.1 billion) was set aside to provide farmers with better access to agricultural financing and allow the government to redistribute another 1.3 million hectares of land to 700,000 landless farmers. 

But activists say the new president needs to reform his own backyard first.

“If there is any issue that will hound and test the resolve of President Noynoy Aquino on agrarian reform, it will be his actions towards the ownership of Hacienda Luisita,” Marquez said.

Taken from: TrustLaw http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/good-governance/news-and-analysis/detail.dot?id=d3f6eb5e-9fd9-4e36-9223-59f7b8636dc0