Agrarian Reform under Benigno Aquino III administration:

Present: DAR which is the lead agency for CARP implementation is bent on sustaining the gains
of agrarian reform through its three major components Land Tenure Improvement (LTI),
Program Beneficiaries Development (PBD) and Agrarian Justice Delivery (AJD).

Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER) or Republic Act
9700:
1. Focus on large-sized private agricultural lands; Redeployment of competent DAR personnel to
the 20 high LAD provinces; Streamline LAD processes and procedures; and Enhance the
database of landholdings for ease in targeting and monitoring the LAD;

2. Prioritizing the subdivision of collective Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs)
involving LBP-compensable lands;

3. Fast tracking the documentation and settlement of landowner compensation for already
distributed lands;

4. Synergizing and rationalizing the efforts of the CARP implementing agencies in all processes of
LAD;

5. Partnering with the civil society organizations (CSOs) in the delivery of LTI services,
particularly the large-sized private agricultural lands (PAL);

6. Adopting a job-sharing scheme wherein under the ONE-DAR concept, provinces will share
responsibilities (low-LAD provinces with high LAD provinces) to minimize the need to hire new
personnel; and

7. Increasing the utilization of the services of geodetic engineers to assist the provincial and
municipal offices in land acquisition considering the difficulty of hiring new personnel and the
demands of a post-2014 scenario.

DARs Program Beneficiaries Development (PBD) priorities:
1. Undertaking convergence initiatives with rural development agencies to complement the
resources and streamline the efforts of DAR, DA and DENR;

2. Inking public-private partnerships (PPPs) develop models of collaboration and business
models in AR areas with the participations of the CSOs, academe, research and development
institutions and LGUs;

3. Expanding official development assistance (ODA) portfolio in order to augment incomes for
PBD;

4. Integrating LTI and PBD on a province-to-province basis;

5. Shifting focus of low-LAD balance provinces to PBD; and

6. Unlocking credit facilities for the agrarian reform beneficiaries through capacity development
for credit providers and farmer-borrowers.

Better off or not?
- Farmers under the Agrarian Reform in the Noynoy Aquino administration are still
not satisfied. Though there are a number of implementations on lands for the
benefit of the farmers there are still farmers who are not satisfied especially with
the Hacienda Luisita land which was promised for them but is said to be distributed
by 2014.
- Another testament to the unsatisfied farmers are the constant rallies held by
different organizations of farming groups in different places in Manila.
- Dorita Vargas, a 63-year-old widow and farmer, who was assured of getting land
within 2012 by the President no less. Aling Dorita and 13 other farmers sharing a 5-
hectare lot could not even step into their land since it is right at the middle of a 126-
hectare property in La Castellana, Negros Occidental that is still the subject of a
dispute. Vargas has written the President on May 22 to complain about her
dilemma.
- We wish to express our complete dismay on the lack of capacity of De los Reyes to
lead DAR. He is the biggest impediment to CARP completion, TFM-Negros
president Alberto Jayme and Rodito Angeles said in the five-page letter.

Evidence of improvement or non-improvement:
- Non improvement: government still had to distribute a total of 1,209,236 hectares
to landless farmers. From July 2010 to December 2012, Malacanang was able to
distribute only 251,876 hectares (representing a measly 21% ). leaving a balance of
957,360 to be given away until the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program
Extension with Reforms (CARP) funding expires on June 14, 2014.
- DAR records surmise that the current Aquino administration is the worst performer
as far as land acquisition and distribution (LAD) since the CARP was launched by the
Cory Aquino administration. The Noynoy Aquino administration actually scored the
worst record since 1986, distributing only 251,876 hectares to the farmers since July
2010, represemting a measly 21% of the total LAD coverage.
- In its May 28, 2013 letter to President Aquino[1], the advocacy group Sulong-
CARPER claimed that the Aquino administration claimed to have distributed 113,866
hectares last year but official records of the Land Registration Authority (LRA)
showed that the government only distributed 59,837 hectares, even including
11,991 hectares in the pipeline vs the false claims of DAR secretary of 113,866
hectares. This against the revised taget of 180,000 hectares.

Conclusions:
- So far there are more complaints and dissatisfaction expressed by our farmers in the
Agrarian Reform of President Benigno Aquino III. There are a number of promises
for our farmers but so far only few have been made to action. But what really
dissatisfies our farmers is the Hacienda Luisita which is still not distributed to them.
But in 2014 our president has promised the land distribution which might be a big
turn-around for him in his Agrarian Reform.