A group of farmers from Batangas, Negros Occidental, Boracay, Palawan, and other provinces, supported by agrarian and social justice organizations and advocates including Atty Chel Diokno, stage a protest infront of the headquarters of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Quezon City on June 10, 2024 to mark the 36th anniversary of the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. 

They called upon DAR leaders to address critical issues affecting land distribution and ownership. They alleged that there are “numerous reversals of land acquisition and distribution (LAD), cancellations of Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOA), and suspicious deletions of agricultural lands from the CARP.” 

In a statement released to the press, Task Force Mapalad said “the record of current President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is not at all enviable.” 

“Based on DAR records, the total number of hectares registered for CARP from July to December 2022 was 4,232.658 nationwide…. the grim reality is that, after the drumbeating and chest-thumping about a leap in the CARP when Marcos condoned the amortization of the debt of some ARBs last year, the fact is that the DAR has limited money and lacks the political will to hasten the LAD and meet government’s  commitment to complete CARP by 2028,” TFM said.

“We cannot understand why President Marcos has failed to marshal the government’s resources to ensure that CARP can wipe out the LAD backlog and quicken the takeover of PALs and the distribution of land to the farmers who have been waiting for decades to receive a tract of land they could cultivate,” TFM said.

“It is truly revolting to find out that the DAR could not lobby for more funding to support CARP, hasten the process to dismantle huge landholdings and provide support services to ARBs. It is disheartening to note that this government allots more money for confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs) rather than CARP, which benefits millions of Filipinos by reducing landlessness and freeing farmers from exploitation and oppression,” TFM said.

Another group of farmers and genuine land reform advocates led by AMIHAN, the national federation of rural women, trooped to the DAR “to protest Marcos Jr’s perpetuation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform and market-assisted land reform.”

The group said, “as far as farmers are concerned, Marcos Jr deserves a failing mark (bagsak) for the worsened situation of farmers, state of local agriculture, and food production.”

“Today, June 10, 2024, marks the 36th year of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which was proved decades ago by farmers as a bogus and fake land reform program that failed to give social justice and redistribute tens of thousands of hectares of land to farmers and agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs),” KMP said in a press statement.

On the contrary, CARP is regarded as the longest-running, most expensive, and most repressive land reform program enacted by the PH government, KMP said.

KMP said “the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Malacanang target to distribute 100,000 Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) for 2024 after claiming that it already distributed 70,000 CLOAs to ARBs in 2023.”

“Despite this preposterous claim is the glaring fact and reality that Spanish-era haciendas remain intact, big landlords and the local elite have control and ownership of vast tracts of farmlands and landholdings,” KMP said.

“In reality,” according to KMP, “DAR and Marcos Jr’s grandiose CLOA distribution blitzes nationwide are not translating into ensuring food security for Filipinos and even farmers who produce food for the nation.” 

(Photos by Jimmy A Domingo)