AGRARIAN-reform advocates on Friday urged incoming Agrarian Secretary Rafael V. Mariano to fast-track the distribution of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) balance, and revoke what it calls the “killer” administrative order issued by his incumbent Secretary Virgilio R. de los Reyes.
In a statement, Jose Rodito Angeles, president of Task Force Mapalad (TFM), said that, aside from a review, reversals and protection of tenure of farmers already issued with certificates of land ownership award (Cloas), Mariano could prioritize the immediate distribution to farmers of over half-a-million hectares of landholdings nationwide.
The figure is the balance that will be left and passed on to the Duterte administration, TFM said.
Still undistributed, according to TFM, are vast tracts of land that include almost 5,400 landholdings covering close to 60,000 hectares that are already issued with CARP notices of coverage, but whose notices of coverage (NOCs) were later invalidated by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
“While we await for a passage of a more progressive and comprehensive agrarian-reform legislation, the new DAR leadership can maximize the provisions in Republic Act 9700, or the CARP extension with reform [CARPer] law, to proceed and fast-track the acquisition and distribution of these landholdings, the bulk of which are found in Negros,” Angeles said.
TFM said that, while CARPer, indeed, has many imperfections, some provisions in the law could still be used “to protect and expand peasants’ gains.”
Angeles said to fast-track the distribution of landholdings, Mariano could revoke killer administrative orders that had slowed down or hindered CARP implementation, such Administrative Orders (AOs) 7 and 9 issued by de los Reyes.
The two AOs, according to Angeles, have become the basis for big landholders to hold on to haciendas even if these had already been covered by CARP.
Also, the AOs have delayed the DAR’s acquisition and distribution of landholdings to farmers, resulting in the agency’s underdelivery of its CARP targets.
TFM said, under Mariano, whom it describes as a fearless farmer and farmer-leader can also overturn earlier decisions that questionably invalidated the issuance of NOCs in landholdings that are already in their first stages of coverage.
According to TFM, the bulk of the CARP balance is found in Negros Occidental. As of December 2015, over 94,000 hectares of haciendas in the province, or nearly 20 percent of the nationwide balance, are still in the hands of landlords.
“There are many ‘Luisitas’ in Negros—big landholdings that remain undistributed by CARP and still under the control of haciendero families, such as the Cojuangcos, Arroyos, Aranetas, Locsins, Benedictos, Yulos, Gustilos, Ledesmas, Lopezes and Jalandonis. It is where the core of injustice and inequity are taking place up to now,” Angeles said.
“We hope that the DAR, this time under Ka Paeng, will have the political will to prioritize the immediate distribution to farmers of vast agricultural landholdings in Negros,” Angeles said.