Task Force Mapalad
Nov. 3, 2019
Land distribution in haciendero-ruled Negros Occidental to extend to 3 more presidents, two more decades if sluggish CARP continues
Peasants ask DAR: You have money, manpower, mandate, and President Duterte’s directive, why can’t you still fast-track land reform?
If it continues with its slow operations and low accomplishments, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) would need over two more decades and three more presidents before it could finally complete land distribution in Negros Occidental, which up to now has the biggest balance of agricultural landholdings that remain under the control of hacienderos.
Computations made by national peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM) based on data from the DAR showed that from 2016 to 2018, the agency was only able to distribute to Negros Occidental farmer-beneficiaries (FBs) of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) a total of 13,897 hectares or an average of 4,632 has. yearly.
The said land acquisition and distribution (LAD) accomplishment by the DAR only reduced by 12 percent the agency’s 2015 LAD balance of 118,273 has. in Negros Occidental, leaving the department with 104,376 has of landholdings that still need to be distributed to FBs in the province, which constitutes nearly 20 percent of the nationwide LAD balance.
“Left with 104,376 hectare-LAD balance in Negros Occidental, the DAR, which earlier promised that the entire country would be LAD-free by 2022, will need to distribute an average of 2,485 has. monthly in the last 42 months of the Duterte administration or from 2019 to June 2022 to end land monopoly in the province,” said Teresita Tarlac, president of TFM’s Panay-Negros Chapter.
Many Negros farmers already dead if land distribution stretches to two more decades
However, at the rate things are going, it is likely that the DAR will not be able to make Negros Occidental LAD-free, much less the whole country, despite the continued promise of President Rodrigo Duterte that the agrarian reform program will be completed under his watch, according to TFM.
“With just a yearly average land distribution accomplishment of 4,632 hectares, it would take the DAR nearly 23 years and three more chief executives after President Duterte to end land monopoly in Negros Occidental alone,” said Tarlac.
“And with the Filipino farmers’ current average age of 57, we would already be in our 80s when we finally become owners of the land we have been tilling for decades if the LAD extends to 23 more years. By that time, many of us, Negros farmers, would already be dead and thus would no longer enjoy the fruits of our labor and long years of struggle for land rights,” said Tarlac.
Earlier, TFM, basing its computation on data from the DAR, bared that the agency, under the current administration, was the slowest in all post-Marcos administrations in terms of distributing agricultural landholdings to CARP beneficiaries.
From 2016 to 2018, or the first three years that the current administration implemented the land-to-the-tiller program, the DAR was only able to distribute to FBs a total of 91,776 hectares of land nationwide or an annual average of 30,592 has.
From 1992 to 1994, the DAR under President Fidel Ramos’s watch, recorded the highest LAD accomplishment, distributing a total of 1,113,019 has. Next was the administration of the late former President Corazon Aquino with 452,074 has. from 1988 to 1990.
Third was the Estrada administration with 379,905 has. distributed from 1998 to 2000, followed by the second Aquino administration with LAD accomplishment of 320,916 has. from 2010 to 2012.
Too many high-salaried DAR field personnel, too little land distributed to Negros farmers
Also, TFM laments that CARP accomplishment in Negros Occidental has remained low despite the fact that under the current administration, the province has the most number of high-salaried DAR field personnel in Region VI, who are directly involved in land distribution.
Data from the department show that of the at least 158 DAR personnel in the Western Visayas Region directly involved in distributing landholdings, 101 (64 percent) are assigned in Negros Occidental.
The 101 Negros Occidental personnel are composed of two senior provincial agrarian reform program officers or PARPO-II; two PARPO-I; two chief agrarian reform officers for land tenure improvement (CARPO-LTI), and 95 municipal agrarian reform program officers (MARPO).
Each of the 95 MARPOs spread in Negros Occidental’s 19 towns and 13 cities received a basic monthly salary of P43,250 (based on their Salary Grade 20 rate in 2016 and 2017), which was increased to P47,037 in 2018 as a result of former President Benigno Aquino III’s Executive Order No. 21 of 2016, which mandated a four-tranche salary hike for government workers until 2019.
“There is usually just one MARPO per town. But in Negros Occidental, there are areas that have multiple MARPOs, like Cadiz City, which has 11 MARPOs; Bago City, which has eight; Himamaylan town, which has five; and La Carlota City and the municipalities of Murcia, Kabankalan, Hinigaran and La Castellana, which have four each,” said Tarlac.
“While it could be reasonable that the number of MARPOs in Negros Occidental is more than in other provinces because it has the biggest area of undistributed landholdings, the low LAD accomplishment in the province proves that the DAR is failing in its efforts in Negros,” she added.
A yearly average LAD accomplishment of 4,632 hectares from 2016 to 2018 means that each of the 95 MARPOs in Negros Occidental — who received an average basic annual income of P534,148 — was only able to distribute to CARP beneficiaries 49 hectares of land a year or just four hectares monthly.
If each MARPO could only distribute an average of 49 hectares yearly, it means that with the remaining LAD balance of 104,376 hectares in Negros Occidental, each of them would be left with about 1,098 hectare-balance that would take them nearly 23 years to distribute.
“Worse, if this slow CARP continues in the hands of low-performing DAR personnel, there would be more money spent for the income of the MARPOs, while poverty worsens among landless tillers,” said Tarlac.
DAR: With means and manpower but still fails to follow CARP mandate
In 2019, a MARPO’s monthly basic income further rose to P51,155 as a result of E.O. 21. Based on the said current rate, not taking into consideration existing perks and allowances and future salary increases, the government would need to cough off a total of at least P1.34 billion for all the basic salaries of the 95 MARPOs in the next 23 years.
The amount would further bloat if the monthly basic salaries of other DAR personnel directly involved in land distribution would be included in the computation. These include the PARPO II’s 2019 salary rate of P107,444; that of the PARPO I worth P95,083; and the CARPO-LTI’s income of P83,406.
“If we include the much bigger salaries of ranking DAR officials, it would be clearer to us that even when the agency has both the means and the manpower to complete land distribution in Negros Occidental and nationwide and the full support and order of President Rodrigo Duterte to complete CARP, the department is still unable to follow its land-to-the-tiller mandate,” said Tarlac.
Data from the Commission on Audit (COA) show that in 2018, DAR Secretary John R. Castriciones received a total annual salary of P3.434 million, which included allowances and other emoluments.
Also, the COA noted that in the same year, these five DAR undersecretaries received the following salaries including allowances and other perks: Luis Meinrado C. Pangulayan – P2.498 million; David D. Erro – P2.492 million; Karlo S. Bello – P2.455 million; Emily O. Padilla – P2.433 million; and Sylvia F. Mallari – P1.966 million.
Meanwhile, data from the Department of Budget and Management show that as of 2018, the DAR had a total of 8,504 filled permanent positions with salaries amounting to P2.848 billion.
CARP implementor is part of the root cause of problem
“This time, we can already conclude that part of the root cause of the problem – of the continuing widespread landlessness and poverty among farmers –is the DAR itself – the implementor of agrarian reform – that lacks the resolve to fully implement CARP and thus makes it easier for hacienderos to find ways to either delay or evade the program,” Tarlac said.
“For some DAR current officials to claim again for the nth time that the agency’s land distribution accomplishment is low because big ‘private agricultural landholdings (PALs) are difficult to cover under CARP due to the resistance of landowners’ ay sirang plaka na po ‘yan [is already a broken record],” she said.
“If it’s really hard to distribute PALs, how come that the DAR previously was able to distribute to farmers the Negros haciendas that used to belong to influential and recalcitrant landlords such as the Lopezes, the Arroyos, the Villanuevas, the Benedictos, and the Cuencas?”
“The big question is: Why is it that while we now have a president, who has agrarian reform in his heart, is ready to get rid of what he calls ‘oligarchic landlords who get the fat of the land,’ and vowed to speed up and complete land distribution within his term, the DAR is ironically in its weakest and most dismal CARP performance?” added Tarlac.
In a speech last August 27, during the DAR’s celebration of the CARP’s 31st anniversary in Quezon City, President Duterte reiterated that his “administration will endeavor to pursue the full implementation of CARP,” because “it is only by empowering farmers can we achieve the sustained growth of our rural economies.”
In the same event, the chief executive ordered Castriciones to give to tillers all the landholdings subject to CARP so there would be equitable distribution of the country’s land resources. “Ibigay mo na. Lahat ibigay mo na…para tabla na lahat,” he told the DAR chief.
“It was the already the highest leader of the land who had given the DAR chief the marching orders to distribute all landholdings. But we can’t understand why Secretary Castriciones still doesn’t move to fast-track and complete CARP. How then can we expect the MARPOs, the PARPOs, and the CARPOs to hasten land distribution if it’s okay with their boss not to follow the President’s directive?” said Tarlac. -END-
