THE National Federation of Peasant Women (Amihan) has renewed its call for a genuine agrarian reform program amidst rising food prices and the threat of food insecurity in the country.
Amihan national chairperson Zenaida Soriano said that despite various agrarian reform laws and programs implemented in the country by the past administrations, land grabbing and farmers’ ejection from their lands persist.
The peasant women group said that based on the 2017 Annual Report of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), DAR has distributed 89.54 percent of its target scope of 5.425 million hectares or 4.857 million hectares from 1972 to December 2017 and has distributed Emancipation Patents (EPs) and Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) to 2.841 million agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).
“While vast agricultural landholdings including haciendas and plantations were covered by Marcos’ PD 27 and Cory’s CARP, the control remained at the hands of hacienderos, oligarchs, and local and foreign capitalists such as the cases of Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, sugar lands in Negros, rice lands in Nueva Ecija and Central Luzon, sugar and coconut lands in Southern Tagalog, coconut lands in Bicol, and plantations in Mindanao,” Soriano said.
“Thus, the so-called ‘ARBs’ become mere statistics counted as DAR ‘accomplishment’ despite the tragic ending of not benefiting from the government’s agrarian reform program,” Soriano added.
The group said it is necessary to validate the status of the ARBs and the lands covered by previous agrarian reform programs to measure the actual success of agrarian reform in the country.
A thorough study on the land ownership of the ARBs should be conducted as many are being displaced by “development projects” while many lose their ownership of the land due to their failure to pay for the amortization or due to bankruptcy resulting from the high cost of production and limited agricultural support and subsidy from the government, the group added.
DAR data reveals that 98,939 hectares of agricultural lands were converted from 1988 to 2016 while 120,381 hectares were approved for exemption from land reform coverage for the same period.
Aside from this, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) data shows an average of 165,000 hectares of irrigated prime agricultural lands converted to other uses annually.
Soriano said that Amihan supports the House Resolution 1130 filed by Anakpawis partylist seeking an investigation on the state of landlessness among Filipino farmers and the perpetuation of the hacienda system.
“Knowing the concrete conditions of farming families would help resolve the endless burden confronting our farmers and the agriculture sector. The attainment of genuine agrarian reform in the country will provide a long-term solution to the rising problem of rising food prices and inflation,” Soriano said.
Based on the study of the research group IBON Foundation, the rising food prices is a product of the long-term underdevelopment of the agriculture sector. The sector is in deep crisis with slowing growth, massive job losses, and the insufficient food supply for the growing population.
“While increasing food imports could be short-term solution, focusing on strengthening local production through free land distribution and provision of sufficient and appropriate services and subsidies would still be the best way to ensure the country’s food security and self-sufficiency,” Soriano said.
Amihan also called for the enactment of the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) that pushes for free distribution of land and a genuine agricultural program.
“The aspiration of the Filipino farmers and peasant women to attain genuine agrarian reform is reflected on the ongoing land cultivation areas or bungkalan in different provinces across the country including Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Isabela, Cagayan, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Negros, Iloilo, Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental and Davao del Norte among others to resolve the century-old landlessness in the country. It is also in this essence why farmers support the resumption of peace talks for the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER) to push through which will tackle the substantive agenda of agrarian reform and rural development,” Soriano concluded.