Agrarian Reform Programs
The implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)barely moved in 2001. In President Arroyo's address during the Congress ofthe Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO) in November 2001, sheadmitted that her administration was only able to distribute, as of October2001, 20,000 hectares out of the 100,000 hectares it targeted fordistribution by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). (It also targetedfor distribution another 100,000 hectares of public land under thejurisdiction of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources) The 100,000-hectare target the Arroyo administration set for DAR isway below the annual average output of the Estrada administration, whichwas 133,355 hectares. This target places in jeopardy the overall target ofcompleting the agrarian reform program by 2008. As of December 2001, DARhad a remaining balance of some 1.19 million hectares, which means that it
Another indication of the political will of the current administrationin implementing agrarian reform (and also another source of frustrationwith this administration) is the President's much publicized "promise" tohave her husband's land in Negros covered and distributed under theVoluntary Offer to Sell (VOS) scheme of CARP (Gono 2002). The said budget cut has resultedin DAR's lack of funds to pay landowners the required initial cash outlay /payment[2]. Without such funds, no land distribution can be undertaken,effectively placing "agrarian reform" in the freezer (Gono 2002). This administration started off slowly and on the wrong foot in termsof agrarian reform implementation and may just end up dead on its tracks oreven flat on its face. With the landbeing voluntarily offered for CARP coverage, it was expected that thelandholdings would be distributed as soon as possible. The "under targeting" by DAR, as pointed out by peasant groups andagrarian reform advocates to DAR and to the President herself, alsoindicates the level of commitment this administration has in fast-trackingthe implementation and completion of CARP (Gono 2002). And"finish" CARP, the Arroyo administration may just do (Gono 2002). After one year, DAR had yetto come out with major policies addressing issues that have been raised bypeoples' and nongovernmental organizations, in particular, the policy on"corporatives. [1] Corporatives are joint venture enterprises between agrarian reformbeneficiaries and an investor, who may be the former landowner, anindividual and a corporation. Neither the President nor DAR,however, opposed the Senate's cutting of the budget for landownercompensation in the 2002 national budget. The budget cut on landowner compensation also came just a few daysafter the signing of the "National Socio-Economic Pact of 2001" (December10, 2001) by the President herself, other government officials, and membersof the business sector and civil society. Supposedly, thiswould have been the most concrete and radical act of commitment to agrarianreform implementation by a President of the Philippines. e at least 150,000 hectares per year until 2008 (PARFUND2002). Secretary Baraganza has shown total inexperience and lack of knowledgein the realm of agrarian reform implementation.
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Acceptance Essays
