Agrarian Reform, has been labeled as one of the most promising, yet most controversial political agenda Philippines

have been dealing with for almost half a century. After 15 years of following the implementation of CARP (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program), our government claims to have almost distributed about 5.8 million hectares of land to 2.7 million agrarian reform (AR) beneficiaries, totaling to an accomplishment rate of 72 percent. This is a terrible performance for it should only take 5 years for CARP to be finished. CARP is the result of constant haggling and debate of landowners-lawmakers and the advocates of reform. Based on the 51 page Agrarian Reform article we have read entitled Agrarian Reform: The Promise and the Reality. It is shown how Agrarian Reform became a promise to fellow peasants for a much broader living, the benefits it may give them, and the comfort it may cause. It is also stated that CARP changes in each administration. Great debates in congress have done nothing at all besides intelligible sounds from pros and cons. The majority of the congresses are landowners so, it is obvious that Agrarian Program failed in this stage. Then there comes Rep. Bonifacio Gillego who composed all the proposals regarding Agrarian Reform into one House Bill, the House Bill 400. But with congressmen appealing to this with even the silliest reasons, like treating thy land as their own child, this further proven the alleged non-participating political power of the Congress at that time. The bill was passed on April 21, 1988 and approved as Republic Act 6657 (RA 6657), this gave us the CARP we all know. There are also commentaries from James Putzel, a renowned agrarian reformist, who stated a

lot of pointers, shortcomings, mistakes, blunders, and contradictions being made by the government and the reformist that makes Agrarian Reform here in our country awfully sluggish in the flow of progress. CARPs concept is also unknown; yeah we understood the mandate, the mission. But no one even knew what the Comprehensive component meant. It also has a lot of loopholes, and glitch which landowners used to bypass this law with clever minds. Under Corys administration, CARP stalls, the progress became too slow for comfort. Eduardo Tadem, through extensive research and watchful observation, notice this invisible progress despite of the general census of progress which said that Aquino has successfully distributed over a million hectares. This exaggerated estimates further pushed Tadem to claim that something fishy is happening at this administration. Aquinos DAR (Department of Agrarian Reform) also had been smeared with a lot of land-related anomalies. Like the Gachitorena case which involved 1888 hectares of land that costs Php3.2 million, but then bought in a ridiculous price of 62.7 million a month later. And who will forget about the Hacienda Luicita Arrangement, a 6000 hectare land which is owned by the Presidents family herself. It is arguably the countrys most controversial landholding For having an unfair, unjust accommodation, resisting on distributing it which further oiled the flame, causing rallies and such, which has been the cause of the infamous Hacienda Luicita massacre, killing 13 innocent peasants. Thus making this issue one of the greatest blunder Aquino administration had undergone.

Then the ESP (Economic Stabilization Program) which have a big influence in terms of Debt servicing came unto seen. Aquino couldnt handle all the economic insufficiency so we relied heavily on Overseas Banks like IMF (international Monetary Fund) and World Bank. And this debt has an agreement of floating exchange rate subject. The foreign Investment Act of 1991 further liberalized the entry of foreign investors and the Common Privatization Act allowed the reform of sectors of Philippine society, especially public utilities. And to maintain the high prices of oil, to boost the inflation rate, to trigger a supply shock and to lower the aggregate demands, the Oil Price Stabilization Fund was made. With all of this, CARP was stalled for almost more than a year, and only enacted not to stimulate asset reform but to address peasant unrest in the countryside, and once this unrest vanishes, politics will push it to the depths of nothingness. At Ramos CARP, just after he got his seat of Presidency. He immediately targeted a number of key areas in which DAR should focus. Farmers were unhappy with the slow distribution of land. And this became the focus of DAR to win back the stakeholders trust. Regular consultations and dialogues were held for farmer beneficiaries. DAR also builds stronger ties and relationship with NGOs and POs. and thus acknowledging the tripartite (NGO-PO-GO) which was also called more as the bibingka strategy". It attempted to untie the government, stakeholders, and NGOs. With Ramos and Garilao in tandem, Garilaos bibingka strategy delivered limited bu significant gains; He also cleaned up the DAR bureaucreacy. Garilao reeducated personnels of DAR about the basics of CARP. To enhance beneficiary development,

DAR under Garilao launched the Agrarian reform communities project way back 1993. This program concentrated eh delivery of support services to a cluster of areas benefitting a threshold number of farmers beneficiaries as well as nonfarmer beneficiaries. Garilao is proud the he left DAR in a much better shape than when he got it in 1992. With this own hands, he passed on to his successor a more capable bureaucracy. A ten year extension for CARP has also been approved. In February 1998 president Ramos signed Republic Act 8532, which extended CARP implementation to 2008 and provided additional budget of Php50 million. Joseph Estrada later assumed the presidency and had confidence he would finish CARP in four years. But it failed due to miserable blunders, slow movements, and failure of communication and teamwork. President Estrada was impeached in 2000, Government programs came to a halt. And under Morales, DAR bureaucratic corruption escalated to a point where even DAR personnel would process and expendite conversion cases. Rampant reversals and Patterns of Reconsolidation ensues. Assessing CARPS performance, Dinky Soliman, cites the numerous reversals of the last 3 years as one of the biggest problems of the Morales-led DAR. Bigat Bawi had become such a common practice that while paper titles to the land would often be awarded to farmers, no physical installation would take place. Danding Cojuangco, the godfather of agrarian reform as said by Erap just for humor, has turned to irony when this big land owner, volunteered to distribute his land to his longtime farmers.

The Morales-led DAR also championed a variation on an approach to land reform conceptualized by the World Bank:market-assisted land reform(MALR). This is characterized as a willing seller-willing buyer. The main critique against MALR has to do with the fact that it considers agrarian reform a matter of economics; not only is agrarian reform implementation left to the market. But its rationale is reduced to how productive the land can be rendered. CMARP (Community Managed Agrarian Reform Program) also assumes a condition of land surplus, which does not reflect the reality of land scarcity in the Philippines. The Morales-led DAR would ultimately be remembered for missed targets, alarming ratrs of land reversals and conversions, continued owner resistance in private agricultural lands, a corporative scheme, and a market-assisted land reform scheme. However you look at it, CARP is now in a crisis. In its last phase of implementation, CARP is at the mercy of a government that lacks funds to see the program through. Or maybe, the congress refuses to deliver the required budget. In an advertisement commemorating the anniversary of CARP. Arroyo targeted 200,000

hectares to be distributed annually, ( the lowest in the history of CARP). CARP has entered a highly dangerous risk phase. Many commercial farm plantations and prime private agricultural lands are up for distribution. Arroyo commended the performance of DAR for exceeding 2001 quota of 101, 318 hectare, The Breganza-led DAR claimed to have distributed 104,261 hectares to 72,188 farmers. Other records after this make us believe that Arroyo, her administration, had the biggest distribution in just a year. In fact, Arroyo has had the lowest distribution record in the history of CARP. DAR

leadership is crucial to the effective implementation of CARP. Braganza alienated himself from the peasant sector; he abandoned the open door policy that he adopted at the beginning of his term. This made his relationship with framer groups conflictridden. After Braganza resigned, Arroyo appointed former Bulacan Robert Pagdanganan as DAR secretacy. One year into his term, Pagdanganan remained unclear about how he intended to proceed with CARP. But in BizNews Asia , his works hailed a revolutionized agrarian reform program. He wouldnt focus on accelerating the distribution of the remaining 2.2.6 million hectares but on empowering the farmers who have already received their lands. He intended to give new meaning and impetus to CARP through cooperatives. Cooperatives, according to him, would be free farmers from the stranglehold of loan sharks. Pagdanganans policy pronouncements also betrayed his confusion with regard to who his primary constituencies were and whose interests he was mandated to protect and promote. Pagdanganan also called for more faster conversions of agricultural lands. But perhaps the most formidable and hard hindrance to the implementation of CARP was his blanket support for the Farmland as Collateral bill (Senate Bill 2553) Pagdanganan was not the only one who is focused on pushing for the immediate enactment of a law making farmland acceptable as loan collateral; Arroyo herself passionately backed the passing of this law. As the promise of Agrarian Reform still hangs the peasants of our country to a

never ending wait. CARP is still a shimmering hope for farmers after years and years of cultivating this lands. As Quitoriano says, One measure of civility in civil society is for

individuals to own property and have access to education: in this sense, farmer benificiaries have achieved the masic minimumof owning property and being educated. In this age and so forth, the true legacy of CARP remains unseen.